AN 

INQUIRY 

I NTO 

THE PROOFS, NATURE, AND EXTENT 

OF 

INSPIRATION. 



AN 



INQUIRY 



THE PROOFS, NATURE, AND EXTENT 



INSPIRATION, 



AND INTO 



THE AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE. 



BY THE 

REV. SAMUEL HINDS, M.A. 

OF QUEEN'S COLLEGE, AND VICE-PRINCIPAL OF ST. ALBAN's HALL, 
OXFORD. 



OXFORD, 

PRINTED BY W. BAXTER. 

FOR B. FELLOYYES, LUDGATE STREET, LONDON; 
AND J. PARKER, OXFORD. 

1831. 



,H5 






CONTENTS. 



PART I. 

PROOFS OF INSPIRATION. 

11 

Page 

§. 1. Proofs requisite for establishing an inspiration of 

persons ... ..... 8 

§. 2. Proofs requisite for establishing an inspiration of Scrip- 
ture ......... 26 

§. 3. External proofs of Scriptural inspiration . . . 30 

§. 4. Internal proofs of Scriptural inspiration . . .47 

§. 5. Internal proofs that the authors of Scripture performed 

testimonial miracles ...... 49 

§. 6. Prophecy fulfilled, a proof of inspiration . . .54 

§. /• The moral instruction contained in Scripture, a proof 

of inspiration ........ 66 

§. 8. The omissions of Scripture, a proof of inspiration . . J5 
§. 9. Proof of inspiration derived from certain peculiarities in 

the Scripture narratives ... . . 81 



vi Contents. 

Page 

§.10. Phraseology of the New Testament, a proof of inspir- 
ation ......... 8/ 

§.11. General remarks on the character of the internal proofs 

contrasted with the external . . . . .91 

PART II 

THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF INSPIRATION. 

§. 1. General Remarks ....... 9/ 

§. 2. The different modes of revelation for receiving which men 

have been inspired ....... 99 

§. 3. The nature and extent of supernatural qualifications for 

receiving a revelation . . . . . .102 

§. 4. The different purposes for accomplishing which men 

have been inspired . . . . . . .116 

§. 5. The nature and extent of supernatural qualifications for 

each different purpose . . . . . .124 

§. 6. Miraculous improvement of the natural powers . 127 

§. 7' Superintendence of the Holy Spirit . . . .136 

PART III. 

THE AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE. 

§. 1 . General principles for deciding the authority of any 

Scripture . . . . . . . . .149 

§. 2. Historical and other statements of facts . . .152 



Contents. vii 

Page 

§. 3. Doctrines and precepts . . . . .156 

§.4. The reasoning of Scriptural writers . . . .160 

§. 5. Modifications arising from the character of the Mosaic 

institution . . . . . . . . .167 

§. 6. Cautions respecting the application of the foregoing 

views 170 

§. 7- Uninspired authority 173 



INTRODUCTION 



INSPIRATION is confessedly a difficult sub- 
ject ; but, much of the difficulty that perplexes 
it is often of our own making. Never, perhaps, 
did a sincere, humble-minded Christian, studying 
the inspired character of Scripture and of the di- 
vine agents with no further design than to ascertain 
whether he has a safe rule of faith and of conduct, 
fail of comprehending at least enough of the 
subject for his purpose. Many however enter 
on the inquiry, not so much with a view to 
determine the standard of their belief and prac- 
tice, as to elicit abstract principles of inspiration. 
Many come, in short, to the oracles of the Most 
High, not to consult them, but to pry into them — 
to discover the process and machinery, as it were, 
by means of which those oracles have been 
obtained and issued ; and such a speculative 

B 



2 Introduction. 

research affords ample room, we all know, for 
doubt, contrariety of opinion, and even scepticism 
about the very existence of inspiration. 

It is thus that some refuse to recognise any 
inspiration of the New-Testament-Scriptures, 
excepting for the single assertion that Jesus is 
the Christ. Others again, excluding all the 
historical portions of the Bible, would limit the 
sacred character to its doctrinal assertions. It is 
maintained by some, and denied by others, that 
inspiration extends to physical facts — to notices 
respecting profane history — to the style and com- 
position. According to some, the whole of 
Scripture, matter and language, must be alike of 
divine authorship ; whilst others find no difficulty 
in supposing, that God might have committed 
his extraordinary agency altogether to the uncon- 
trolled and unassisted registry of fallible men. 

Nor are the views entertained commonly about 
the Holy Spirit's influence on the lives and con- 
duct of Christians less various and conflicting. 
On the one hand, we meet with the most con- 
fident assertions of a sensible perception of the 
workings of that Divine Person on the heart of 
Christians now ; as if there existed no mark of 



Introduction. 3 

distinction between this his abiding presence, 
and the inspiration of apostles and prophets — in 
other words, as if the temporary provisions of the 
Almighty for attesting his intercourse with men, 
had no characteristic whereby they might be 
known from the permanent provision for our sanc- 
tijication and spiritual help. On the other hand 
many go into an opposite extreme of denying, or 
(what amounts to the same) of excluding from 
their calculations about conduct, all view whatever 
of any immediate and actual interference of the 
Holy Spirit. 

When we reflect on the immense importance 
of the question at issue — on the place which the 
doctrine of inspiration occupies in the Christian 
Religion, and the extent to which our whole view 
of Revelation must be affected by the notions we 
form on this subject — such a chaos of opinion, 
under any circumstances, and at any time, would be 
a matter of serious consideration. But the aspect 
of the present times renders it peculiarly so ; and 
forces the consequences irresistibly on the atten- 
tion of every reflecting Christian. It is amidst 
this discordance of doctrine about the foundation 
principle of all revealed Religion, that a vast and 

b2 



4 Introduction. 

momentous moral crisis is rapidly approaching — 
the rise of Education throughout the mass of the 
People. Amidst pretensions to sensible spiritual 
communion on the one hand, and a careful avoid- 
ance of recognising any divine interposition on 
the other — amidst theories invented or imported, 
that would subject the sacred volume to the rules 
of mere ordinary criticism, opposed only in 
partial and personal controversy — a large portion 
of the community, which has been hitherto un- 
educated, is suddenly roused into free inquiry, 
and furnished with ability to perceive all that 
darkens and deforms the subject; but — it must 
be owned and lamented — not furnished with that 
spiritual training, which alone enables the in- 
quirer to see his way through it. 

It is not tbat the people at large are without 
any religious and moral instruction — it is not 
that they have absolutely less now than hereto- 
fore — they have probably more. But the pro- 
gress of spiritual and worldly knowledge is un- 
equal ; and it is this inequality of progress that 
constitutes the danger. It is a truth which cannot 
be too strongly insisted on, that if the powers 
of the intellect be strengthened by the acquisi- 



Introduction. 5 

tion of science, professional learning, or general 
literature — in short, secular knowledge, of what- 
ever kind, without being proportionately exercised 
on spiritual subjects, its susceptibility of the ob- 
jections which may be urged against Revelation 
will be increased, without a corresponding in- 
crease in the ability to remove them. Conscious 
of having mastered certain difficulties that attach 

to subjects w T hich he has studied, one so educated 

■ 

finds it impossible to satisfy himself about diffi- 
culties in Revelation ; Revelation not having re- 
ceived from him the same degree of attention ; 
and, forgetful of the unequal distribution of his 
studies, charges the fault on the subject. Doubt, 
discontent, and contemptuous infidelity, (more 
frequently secret than avow T ed,) are no unusual 
results. It seems indeed to have been required of 
us by the Author of Revelation, that his Word 
should have a due share of our intellect, as w r ell 
as of our heart ; and that the disproportionate 
direction of our talents, no less than of our affec- 
tions, to the things of this world, should disqualify 
us for faith. What is sufficient sacred knowledge 
for an uneducated person, becomes inadequate 
for him w T hen educated j even as he would be 



6 Introduction. 

crippled and deformed, if the limb which was 
strong and well-proportioned when he was a 
child, should have undergone no progressive 
change as his bodily stature increased, and he 
grew into manhood. We must not think to 
satisfy the divine law, by setting apart the same 
absolute amount as the tithe of our enlarged 
understanding, which was due from a narrower 
and more barren field of intellectual culture. 

Nor let it be imagined that this is true only of 
minds highly gifted, and accomplished in science, 
elegant literature, or professional pursuits. It is 
not the absolute amount of worldly acquirements, 
but the proportion that they bear to our religious 
attainments, be these what they may, that is to be 
dreaded. If the balance of intellectual exercise 
be not preserved, the almost certain result will 
be, either an utter indifference to religion ; or 
else, that slow-corroding scepticism, which is 
fostered by the consciousness, that difficulties cor- 
responding to those that continue to perplex our 
view of Revelation have, in our other pursuits, 
been long surmounted and removed. 

Inspiration is one of the topics peculiarly ex- 
posed to this unfair treatment. The whole ques- 



Introduction. 7 

tion is one concerning facts and views altogether 
out of the ordinary course of nature and of human 
affairs ; and the conclusions we arrive at must 
of course present some few revolting difficulties to 
a mind that has been thus partially and irregularly 
trained ; a mind that has been accustomed to 
dwell, either exclusively or immoderately, on 
natural causes and effects. " The natural man" 
(as Paul declares) " receiveth not the things of 
the Spirit of God ; for they are foolishness unto 
him : neither can he know them, because they 
are spiritually discerned*." And this remark of 
the apostle does not rest merely on his authority : 
even one who should deny him any, nay one 
who should deny Revelation, must admit, that if 
there were things of the Spirit of God, the natural 
man was not qualified to receive and know them. 
To provide such arguments, therefore, or to 
place the subject in such a point of view, as 
should secure it a fair examination from all, 
notwithstanding such impediments, is perhaps 
impracticable ; and has certainly not been con- 
templated in the present undertaking. At the 
same time, there are many persons, on whom the 

* 1 Cor. ii. 14. 



8 Introduction. 

reasoning commonly employed in treating of in- 
spiration, and the display of its claims, would 
make their due impression ; but for the want of 
certain links to connect these theological dis- 
quisitions with their ordinary habits of thinking 
and of satisfying their minds on other subjects. 
To obviate this difficulty has been my aim ; and I 
have accordingly endeavoured rather to give a 
survey of the mode in which the subject may be 
investigated, and of the light in which it should 
be considered, than a detail of all the arguments 
and views which it involves. 

The leading questions respecting Inspiration 
are those which relate, first, to the proofs by 
which it is. in any case, to be established ; 
secondly, to the nature and extent of its opera- 
tion ; and thirdly, to the authority which is 
claimed for it. In this order these several points 
will be examined. 






PART I. 

PROOFS OF INSPIRATION. 



§. 1. Proofs requisite for establishing an inspiration 
of persons. 

IN the case of a person claiming to be com- 
missioned with a message from God, the only- 
proof which ought to be admitted, is miraculous 
attestation of some sort. It should be required 
that either the person himself should work a 
miracle, or that a miracle should be so wrought 
in connection with his ministry, as to remove all 
doubt of its reference to him and his message. 

The miracle, in these cases, is, in fact, a speci- 
men of that violation of the ordinary course of 
nature, which the person inspired is asserting to 
have taken place in his appointment and min- 
istry ; and corresponds to the exhibition of speci- 
mens and experiments, which we should require of 
a geologist, mineralogist, or chemist, if he as- 



10 Proofs of Inspiration. 

serted his discovery of any natural phenomena — 
especially of any at variance with received theo- 
ries. In this latter case it would be not only 
reasonable to require such sensible proof, but it 
would be unreasonable to admit the assertion 
without it — without seeing the experiment or spe- 
cimen ourselves, or, satisfying ourselves, on the 
testimony of credible witnesses, that it had been 
seen by others. Equally unreasonable would it 
be to admit any person's claim to inspiration, or 
extraordinary communion with God, without the 
appropriate test — the " earnest of the Spirit 3 ." 

Accordingly, a careful inspection of the records 
of Revelation will satisfy the inquirer, that God 
has never, in any age, required credence for his 
messengers, without first investing them with 
miraculous credentials — providing them with spe- 
cimens, as it were, of that extraordinary divine 
agency, concerning which they were commis- 
sioned to make report to mankind. Moses, the 



a 2 Cor. i. 22. The expression, which signifies part of a 
sum of money paid down as a pledge that the rest is forth- 
coming ; is repeated in chap. v. 5. and in the Epistle to the 
Ephesians, i. 14. 



Inspiration of persons. 11 

Prophets, our Saviour and his Apostles, all rested 
their claim to a heavenly commission on the mi- 
racles which they performed. " I have greater 
witness," said our Lord to the Jews, " than that 
of John ; for the works which the Father hath 
given me to finish, the same works that I do, 
bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent 
rae b ;" and again, on another occasion, " the 
works that I do in my Father's name, they bear 
witness of me c ;" ''if I do not the works of my 
Father, believe me not : but if I do, though ye 
believe not me, believe the works : that ye may 
know and believe, that the Father is in me, and 
I in him d :" and lastly, when speaking of their 
guilt in rejecting his claim, " if I had not done 
among them the works which none other man 
did, they had not had sin e ." St. Paul accordingly 
represents him as " declared to be the Son of 
God with power V and always appeals for the 
reality of his own apostleship to the ' ' demonstration 
of the Spirit and of powers" The same remark 
applies to Moses, and to those whom God raised 

b John v. 36. c John x. 25. d John x. 37, 38, 
c John xv. 24. f Rom. i. 4. g 1 Cor. ii. 4. 



12 Proofs of Inspiration. 

up after him for the guidance and instruction 
of the Israelites ; in short, to all his inspired 
ministers. 

There is indeed one passage in Scripture ap- 
parently inconsistent with this view ; but so far 
from being really so, it furnishes, when examined, 
the strongest confirmation of it. ' ' If there arise 
among you (declares the law of Moses) a prophet, 
or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign 
or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to 
pass whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us 
go after other gods, which thou hast not known, 
and let us serve them ; thou shalt not hearken 
unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of 
dreams : for the Lord your God proveth you, to 
know whether ye love the Lord your God with all 
your heart and with all your soul h ." It might 
seem then from these words, that the prophet's 
doctrine was to be the test of the sign coming from 
God, not the sign the test of the doctrine being 
from God. But a very little reflection enables us 
to explain this. That Israel was to worship 
Jehovah, and Him alone, was the main principle 
of the Mosaic Law ; and the divine authority of 

h Dent. xiii. 1—3. 



Inspiration of persons. 13 

this great commandment had been proved, and 
impressed on the whole people, by a series of public 
miracles and national interpositions. It was to 
keep up the habitual impression of this evidence, 
and the eminent importance of the point attested 
by it, that the warning was given. The Israelites 
were reminded that it could not be God's miracle, 
if it were wrought for the purpose of contradicting 
that which God had established by so many awful 
signs and wonders ; and that if supernatural 
agency ever were exhibited for this purpose, it 
could only be permitted by God as a trial of 
their faith in that evidence on which the Law 
rested 1 . On the same principle, it would seem, 
our Saviour warned his disciples against certain 
pretenders who were to arise, and work signs 
and wonders indeed; but as these signs were 
to be given in confirmation of assertions opposed 

' This will account for the fact, that the Jews admitted the 
reality of Christ's miracles, and vet disbelieved his assertions. 
They regarded his case as coming under this provision of their 
Law, and rested their decision against him, on the charge that 
his doctrine was opposed to that of Moses. " We are Moses 
disciples, we know that God spake unto Moses." John ix. 
28, 29. 



14 Proofs of Inspiration. 

to his, they could not come from the same source 
as his own miracles 1 '. Hence too he gives them 
the general rule respecting all pretenders, " by 
their fruits ye shall know them 1 ." St. Paul, in 
like manner, tells the Galatians" 1 , that if he 
himself — if an angel from heaven, were to preach 
to them a different doctrine from that which 
he had already preached, they were to hold him 
accursed. It could not be God's message, it 
could not be God's miracle, if it contradicted 
assertions which God had already confirmed by 
miracle. 

This careful inculcation then of a principle, 
which throughout God's extraordinary dealings 
with mankind enabled all to distinguish between 

k Matt. xxiv. 23, 24. Mark xiii. 21, 22. 

1 Matt. vii. 15, 16. To this rule St. John seems to be 
referring in the fourth chapter of his first Epistle, " Beloved, 
believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of 
God : because many false prophets are gone out into the 
world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God ; every spirit that 
confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God : 
and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come 
in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of Anti- 
christ, whereof ye have heard that it should come." 

»' Gal. i. 8. 



Inspiration of persons. 15 

the testimonial miracles of his messengers, and 
those of impostors, is of itself the strongest argu- 
ment that the claim to inspiration and the per- 
formance of miracles always went together. 
Belief indeed built on any other foundation 
would have been credulity ; and to suppose such 
belief required and commended, would be to 
suppose that the weakest minds and the most 
ready to yield to every new impression, were the 
most eminent for faith. 

Miracle, it is to be further observed, must 
have been requisite, not only to obtain credence 
from others to the assertion of one inspired, that 
he was under the extraordinary guidance of God's 
Spirit ; but also to assure the person himself, that 
this was so. How else indeed could Moses or 
Isaiah or Paul have been sure that they were au- 
thorized to speak as the oracles of the Most High? 
How else could they have satisfied themselves 
that the revealing voice was not some imposition 
practised on them ? that the holy dream or vision 
was not the natural results of a disordered mind 
or body ? that the impression of a divine call to 
perform miracles and to do God's errand, was 



16 Proofs of Inspiration. 

more than high wrought enthusiasm and zeal for 
his honour ? 

In truth, so far was the call from always 
finding the chosen servant ready to anticipate 
and welcome it, that history represents many, 
slow to believe themselves called, demanding of 
the Lord the fullest miraculous asurance of his 
appointment, and having their request granted. 
Thus, in the account of Gideon's extraordinary 
commission to deliver the Israelites from the 
army of the Midianites, the Spirit of the Lord is 
said to have come upon him; " And Gideon said 
unto God, If thou wilt save Israel by my hand, 
as thou hast said, behold, I will put a fleece of 
wool in the floor ; and if the dew be on the fleece 
only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then 
shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine 
hand, as thou hast said. And it was so : for he 
rose up early on the morrow, and thrust the fleece 
together, and wringed the dew out of the fleece, 
a bowl-full of water. And Gideon said unto 
God, Let not thine anger be hot against me, and 
I will speak but this once : Let me prove, I pray 
thee, but this once with the fleece ; let it now be 
dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground 



Inspiration of persons. \7 

let there be dew. And God did so that night : 
for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was 
dew on all the ground"." The reluctance of 
Moses again to believe that he would be inspired 
with eloquence, even after his power to work 
signs and wonders had been proved to him by 
the conversion of his rod into a serpent and the 
infliction and removal of leprosy, is an instance 
in which it was even carried to an unreasonable 
extent, inasmuch as it called forth the expression 
of divine displeasure °. 

"Judges vi. 36—40. 

° Exod. iv. Whether Zacharias's requisition of a sign 
from the angel who announced to him the future birth of the 
Baptist, was of this character also, may be doubted. It was 
evidently not considered so unreasonable as to be refused ; and 
yet the angel's words seem to imply that he ought not to have 
needed the proof, although it was granted. All that he was 
commissioned to do in consequence of his vision was to call 
the child's name John ; and the birth of the child, under the 
existing circumstances, would have been sufficient assurance 
that the prediction was miraculous, and his commission therefore 
from God. It was probably then for desiring an earlier sign 
than was necessary — for being unwilling to wait in humble 
suspense for the appropriate sign — that an apparent reproof 
accompanied the miraculous suspension of his speech. See 
Luke, chap. i. 

C 



18 Proofs of Inspiration. 

At the same time, it must not be expected, that 
in all the recorded instances of extraordinary 
commissions, we should find mention made of the 
inspired person receiving the miraculous sign 
of his appointment. It was doubtless only re- 
corded when there was something remarkable 
about it ; and for the very reason that it was an 
established and understood feature of the divine 
agency, it was otherwise omitted in the narrative. 
The tenor of Scripture however implies it ; and 
the reasonableness and necessity of the provision 
is such, as would have entitled us, even on less 
warrant from Scripture than we have, to assert, 
that no inspired messenger was ever left to infer 
his inspiration from the doubtful suggestion of 
his own feelings. 

Both in the case of the person inspired, and 
of him who is called upon to believe in his in- 
spiration, miraculous evidence will not indeed be 
superseded by any antecedent probability there 
may be of divine interposition, but will by that 
be naturally and fairly the more entitled to 
examination. On the supposition, for instance, 
that it was bv God's directions that the Israelites 



Inspiration of persons. 19 

were led into a desert and barren wilderness, 
which of itself could not support them • the 
miracles of manna and quails which then attested 
the divine legation of Moses, are such as we 
should antecedently expect ; and we therefore 
listen to the testimony on which they rest with 
less previous suspicion, than we should, if we 
were told that the Israelites had been supported 
miraculously after they were in possession of the 
promised land. The claims again of Jesus to be 
the Messiah, ought not, indeed, under any circum- 
stances, to have been admitted, unless he had 
performed testimonial miracles ; but the claim 
which his miracles had to attention and candid 
examination, nay, to an anticipation of their 
reality, depended on his coming at the time, and 
under the circumstances, foreshewn by the pro- 
phets. The same miracles wrought by the same 
person (the case of course is a supposed one) 
either a hundred years earlier, or a hundred years 
later, would, if known indeed, have forced assent to 
his assertions; but men would have been justified 
in refusing to examine the evidence for them. It 
is well known that the Jews did find a plea that 
satisfied many who rejected those miracles, in 

c 2 



20 Proofs of Inspriation. 

the supposed inconsistency between their own 
anticipations of the fulfilment of prophecy, and 
our Lord's disavowal of a kingly character: and 
it is evident that they were wrong in so inter- 
preting the prophecy; but not in suspecting the 
divine character of his miracles, supposing those 
prophecies to have been rightly interpreted. 

The true value of this a priori proof, as it is 
sometimes called, should be always accurately 
estimated. It does not supersede the test of 
miracles, but it makes the difference of mira- 
culous pretensions being examined with suspicion 
or with favour — of their deserving or not a careful 
examination. If we contrast, accordingly, the 
real testimonial miracles wrought by our Lord 
and his apostles, with the pretended miracles 
of the Popish saints which are appealed to in 
attestation of their extraordinary communion 
with God, we come to the inquiry, fairly and 
properly, with a presumption against the latter, 
and in favour of the former — we have more ob- 
jections to be removed before we could be satis- 
fied of the latter, than stand in the way in the 
former case. 



Inspiration of persons, 21 

When therefore in the present day, under 
circumstances that at least do not warrant us to 
anticipate manifestations of the Spirit, we find 
persons regulating their lives and resting their 
hopes of eternal life on sensations and experiences 
as- they are termed — making these the index of 
the presence or the abandonment of the Holy 
Spirit ; — they should be reminded, that one thing 
is yet wanting to make their trust accord with 
the faith of apostles and prophets — the perception 
of a sensible miracle. To persuade another to act 
from their suggestions, on the ground that one 
result of such experiences is a more than ordinary 
knowledge of God's will, a sensible miracle ought 
to be wrought for that person's satisfaction; but 
for the assurance of those themselves who expe- 
rience these sensations, a testimonial miracle is 
no less requisite. What was necessary, when 
Moses, the prophets, and the apostles enjoyed 
extraordinary communion with God, cannot 
have been rendered less necessary by any change 
that has since taken place. I waive, for the 
present, the question, whether it is accordant 
with the character of Christianity, considered as 
the final dispensation, that any extraordinary 



22 Proofs of Inspiration. 

interposition should now be displayed ; but 
clearly, if this be ever the case, it cannot be left 
questionable — it must be in every instance either 
miraculously proved, or else it must be false. 

Is there then, I may be asked, no interposition 
of God's Holy Spirit, suggesting good and re- 
pelling evil ; rescuing men from the influence of 
sin, and guiding them to repentance and holiness 
of life ? Are there no longer any miracles of 
grace ? I do not say this : but, that no sensible 
evidence accompanies such divine agency, so that 
we can distinguish it from the workings of our 
own minds. It should be observed too, (although 
it is a mere verbal question,) that the spiritual 
interposition itself, being now the result of an 
established law of Providence, is no longer pro- 
perly a miracle ; but if we choose to consider it 
as such, on the ground that it is an alteration of 
man's original condition ; it is, at all events, no 
perceptible miracle. It never was, as far as we 
know, a perceptible miracle. Sensible proof was 
granted, in the first establishment of Christianity, 
to assure the Church of this spiritual assistance ; 
and the reality of this being once so proved, and 
impressed generally on the Church, there was 



Inspiration of persons. 23 

no need that the proof shall be continued and 
perpetually renewed. We are still however com- 
pelled to believe, on that same evidence, in the 
interposition of the Holy Ghost, and to act on 
the ground of really receiving the benefit of it. 

It is much to be feared, however, that many, 
disgusted at the claims which are made to sensible 
interposition, do practically discard all view of 
a real divine interference ; that is, allow it little 
or no consideration in their plan of conduct. 
Now to acknowledge the Holy Spirit's assistance 
in general terms, and yet to allow this belief no 
influence on any particular actions, is virtually 
to renounce it, as far as it is a practical principle 11 . 
If it be the sensible evidence and perception of 
spiritual assistance that are withdrawn and not 
the agency itself, are we not failing to exercise 
that lively faith, that habitual confidence in 
divine power, which is declared in Scripture to 
be requisite, for the ordinary no less than for 
the extraordinary divine agency to be accom- 
plished in us? This is no abstract question of 

p See Whately's Ninth Essay on the Difficulties of St. 
Paul, where many of the topics belonging to this section will 
be found more fully discussed. 



24 Proofs of inspiration. 

curious and refined theology. It is a question 
about our daily and hourly wants — our ability to 
do good and to abstain from evil — our being 
present with or absent from the Lord — our dis- 
cipleship to him. Do we regard our disciple- 
ship to him now as a mere figure of lan- 
guage ? Are we content to think that he is no 
Immanuel to us — that he has risen from the 
grave, and gone w T hither we cannot follow him ? 
Must disciple after disciple still be heard to say, 
" Except I shall see in his hands the print of the 
nails, and put my finger into the print of the 
nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will 
not believe?'^ O no! Hear the answ T er which 
he makes us, " Be not faithless, but believing" — 
" blessed are they that have not seen, and yet 
have believed." Never let us wait to have the 
rebuke of Thomas repeated to each one of us 
separately — and it may be when it is too late for 
us to profit by it; let us at once exclaim, " My 
Lord and my God!" 

One point more requires to be noticed. The 
above statements may seem to some to need 
being reconciled w r ith our Lord's own account of 



Inspiration of persons. 25 

the Holy Spirit, and its operation on our hearts. 
He illustrates it by the unseen wind, which we 
recognise by its effects on the smoke, and other 
objects that yield to it q ; and hence it may be 
inferred, that we are to regard " the fruits of 
the Spirit 1 "," (as the apostle terms the conduct 
influenced by the Spirit,) the appropriate evidence 
of divine interposition. It is plain, however, that 
in whatever way good conduct is a test of divine 
influence, it cannot be intended as a test of the 
same sort as the testimonial miracles of speaking 
a foreign language, healing, and the like ; for 
then there would have been no need to superadd 
these. The lives of the disciples would have 
been the evidence to which appeal would have 
been made. The moral and religious fruits of a 
holy life undoubtedly are a test of ' ' God working 
within us," and a very important one ; but it- 
is distinguished from the other in two respects. 
I. Miracles w T ere exhibited to prove, not the suc- 
cessful use of spiritual help, but the grant of it 
by God ; whereas the test arising from good 
moral conduct, supposes the grant of assistance 
to be proved and know r n, and only applies to the 
* John iii. 8. r Gal. v. 22. 



1/67 



26 Proofs of Inspiration. 

successful use of it. II. Again, miracles are to. 
be employed as positive proof of the existence of 
spiritual influence; but the only certain applica- 
tion of good conduct in evidence of the existence of 
spiritual influence, is as a negative proof. In the 
absence of good works, we are sure that the Spirit 
has not operated on our hearts ; but a correct 
outward behaviour does not at once imply, that it 
has proceeded from this spiritual assistance which 
the Christian enjoys by covenant. Its applica- 
tion as a test, therefore, is plainly of a very dif- 
ferent kind, and for a different purpose, from the 
use we make of testimonial miracles ; which are, 
therefore, the appropriate and the only evidence, 
to us as well as to the Apostolic Church, of the 
covenanted interposition of the Holy Spirit, for 
our sanctification, and moral strength and com- 
fort. 



§.2. Proofs requisite for establishing an inspiration 
of Scripture. 

The writing of Scripture is only one of the 
many kinds of agency for which the servants of 
the Most High have at different periods been 



Inspiration of Scripture. 27 

inspired. The Bible is said to be inspired, in no 
other sense than the government of the Israel- 
ites might be termed inspired — that is, the per- 
sons who wrote the Bible, and those who were 
appointed to govern God's people of old, were 
divinely commissioned and miraculously qualified, 
so far as was needful, for their respective em- 
ployments. 

This being so, the inspiration of Scripture is 
not, by the strict rule of division, opposed to the 
inspiration of persons ; but forms one branch of 
that multifarious ministry in which those persons 
were engaged. It is nevertheless convenient to 
distinguish it, as I have done, from all other in- 
spired agency, in examining the nature of the 
proofs on which it rests : and this for two rea- 
sons. I. It comprises that portion of the sacred 
ministry which is permanent, and is addressed 
immediately and especially to us. The acts and 
preaching of prophets, apostles, and other extra- 
ordinary dispensers of God's word, constituted 
their ministry to those of their own age ; their 
writings form their ministry to us also and to all 
ages. II. Scripture contains the only authentic 
record of all other inspired agency ; and thus 



28 Proofs of Inspiration. 

becomes the channel through which all other is 
proved. It is the more important too to observe 
this distinction ; because the inspiration of the 
author in writing, is liable to be confounded, in 
the reader's view, with the inspiration of those 
whose acts he is recording : and this especially, 
if the writer was himself an actor in the scenes 
he has narrated. The questions, for example, 
which relate to the inspiration of the Penta- 
teuch, and of Moses performing the part which 
is ascribed to him in that portion of Scripture, 
are quite distinct. 

The proof requisite for establishing the divine 
authority of any writings, when (as in the case of 
the Bible) the testimonial miracles of the authors 
can be no longer witnessed, is either, I. That 
some miracle be implied in the authorship ; or, 
II. That there be satisfactory testimony that the 
writers were persons who performed miracles ; 
or, III. That there be satisfactory testimony, 
that the writings were recognised as works of 
inspiration, by persons who must have been as- 
sured of this on the evidence of miracles. 

In the application of these positive proofs, the 
question of antecedent probability is, of course, 



Inspiration of Scripture. 29 

no less important than when inspiration is claimed 
for a living person. This a priori presumption 
is in the case of Scripture very strong ; and the 
inquirer who has not estimated its force, does not 
deal fairly with the testimony to miracles. That 
God should have committed his Revelations (sup- 
posing Him to have made any) to the uncertain 
channel of oral tradition, or uninspired record, 
is, of itself, a monstrous supposition. If we 
grant that Revelation exists, we may reasonably 
expect to find its truths preserved certainly and 
infallibly somewhere. The Roman Catholics in- 
sist much on this view ; and urge it in favour of 
the claims of Papal infallibility. And undoubtedly 
they are right so far, that the antecedent pro- 
bability of an infallible guide, should lead us to 
examine well the claims of any authority which 
pretends to be that guide. They claim the bene- 
fit of this antecedent probability, and they should 
be allowed it. Only let us carefully remember 
what the use and value of it is — it recommends to 
our notice the appropriate proof, and that proof is 
miracle. Let each successive Pope perform sen- 
sible testimonial miracles ; and then there may 
be a question, whether he, or Scripture, or both, 



30 . Proofs of Inspiration. 

be infallible. It is antecedently probable, nay 
certain, that Revelation would be left infallibly 
to be communicated to all in every age. This 
does not prove that Scripture is that infallible me- 
dium of Revelation, any more than it proves the 
Pope to be ; but it recommends to our notice the 
miraculous evidence that exists for the one, and 
does not for the other. 



$.3. External proofs of Scriptural inspiration. 

It is not my purpose to pursue the details of 
the argument, by which our Scriptures are either 
traced to authors who worked testimonial miracles ; 
or else, are shewn to have had their inspiration 
recognised by persons who must have been satis- 
fied by miraculous evidence ; but merely to point 
out the principles on which this chain of external 
evidence, as it is called, hangs together. The 
details, if not already familiar to the reader, will 
be found in Lardner's Gospel Credibility, Jones's 
Canon of the New Testament, and other works 
of easy access to all. The course of argument 
usually pursued amounts to this. 



Scriptural inspiration. 31 

The primitive Church was assured of the in- 
spiration of our Scriptures by the miracles of 
those who wrote the New Testament, and bore 
witness to the Old ; and again, by the miracles 
of those, who, not being themselves authors, yet 
received and recommended both the Old and 
New Testament as works of inspiration. To us 
this proof is conveyed by the intervention of 
many links of evidence. We first satisfy our- 
selves, through human testimony of various 
kinds, that the authors and qualified approvers 
of Scripture wrought miracles ; and so, join 
the early Church, in admitting the divine autho- 
rity of the Scriptures on the evidence of these 
miracles. 

This argument, it is plain, is made up of 
numerous links of proof. It is plain too, that 
the greater portion of these proofs, we cannot, 
be we ever so highly-gifted or industrious, examine 
for ourselves ; but must admit them on the autho- 
rity of others. For example, in order to prove that 
the Epistle to the Hebrews is an inspired work, we 
first ascertain, perhaps, that it was known to the 
Church as the work of Paul the apostle, at a time 
when the Church was competent to give testi- 



32 Proofs of Inspiration. 

mony to the fact; or otherwise, that it was known 
as the work of an inspired author, whoever he 
might be, by those who were competent to decide. 
We further satisfy ourselves, that the Epistle so 
attested, is the very Epistle which is in our Bible; 
and, lastly, that it has been so preserved as to 
escape corruption, or the liability to corruption. 
Or, suppose that we wished to prove the inspira- 
tion of the Book of Chronicles''. We should 
probably first satisfy ourselves that it belonged to 
one of the three great divisions of the Jewish 
Scriptures, Law, Prophets, and Psalms, or that it 
was included under the term Scriptures, when 
Law, Prophets, and Psalms, or the Scriptures, are 
asserted to be inspired, and appealed to as such, 
in the New Testament. Then the inspiration 
of the New-Testament- Scripture, on whose au- 
thority the former argument rests, will require to 
be proved, by a process similar to that described 

q I have instanced the mode of proving the inspiration of the 
Old Testament by the authority of the New ; because it 
appears to be the most direct and satisfactory for one who is 
only for the first time giving serious attention to the subject ; 
and do not, of course, intend to imply that this is the only 
method of proof. 



Scriptural Inspiration. 33 

in the case of one of the Epistles. Now these 
several steps in the argument involve each an 
immense field of inquiry ; the results of which 
can only be furnished by the separate researches 
of those especially qualified for the task. 

It becomes therefore a very serious question, 
how far these various sources of proof are acces- 
sible to the great mass of Christians — to whom 
they are evidence. The question involves indeed 
the application of this sort of proof, not as proof 
of Scriptural Inspiration alone, but of all the 
facts on which our Religion rests ; and is of so 
great importance, that in attempting to give it a 
satisfactory answer, I shall not limit my view to 
the way in which these proofs affect the imme- 
diate subject of discussion. 

To say, that numerous old manuscripts exist; 
that they admit of classification and date, and 
other characteristics ; to speak of evidence, de- 
rived from contemporary history, from the monu- 
ments of art, from national manners and customs ; 
to assert, that there have been persons qualified 
for the task, who have examined duly these 
several branches of evidence, and have given a 
satisfactory report of that research, is to make 

D 



34 Proofs of Inspiration. 

a statement concerning the evidence of Chris- 
tianity, which is intelligible indeed, but is not 
itself the evidence, not itself the proof, of which 
you speak. So far from this being the case, we 
cannot but feel, that the author who is guiding 
us, and pointing out these pillars of our faith, as 
they appear engraved on his chart of evidence, 
can himself, whatever be his learning, be per- 
sonally acquainted with but a very small portion. 
The most industrious and able scholar, after 
spending a life on some individual point of 
evidence, the collation of manuscripts, the illus- 
trations derived from uninspired authors, trans- 
lations, or whatever the inquiry be, must, after 
all, (it would seem,) rest by far the greater part of 
his faith, immediately on the testimony of others; 
as thousands in turn will rest their faith on his 
testimony, to the existence of such proof as he 
has examined. There is no educated Christian 
who is not taught to appreciate the force of that 
proof in favour of the genuineness of the New 
Testament, which may be derived from the consent 
of ancient copies, and the quotations found in a 
long line of fathers, and other writers ; and yet 
not one in a thousand ever reads the works of 



Scriptural Inspiration. 35 

the fathers, or sees a manuscript, or is even 
capable of deciphering one, if presented to him. 
He admits the very groundwork of his faith on 
the assertion of those who profess to have ascer- 
tained these points ; and even the most learned 
are no further exceptions to this case, than in 
the particular branch of evidence which they have 
studied. Nay, even in their use of this, it will 
be surprising, when we come to reflect on it, how 
great a portion must be examined, only through 
statements resting on the testimony of others. 

Nor is it a question which can be waived, by 
throwing the weight of disproof on those who 
cavil and deny. It turns upon the use which is 
made, more or less, by all, of the positive proofs 
urged in defence of Christianity. Christianity is 
established, and it may be fair to bid its assailants 
prove, that it is not what it professes to be, 
the presumption and prescriptive title being on 
its side ; but Christianity does not intrench itself 
within this fortress : it brings out into the field 
an array of evidences to establish that which, on 
the former view of the case, its adherents are 
supposed not to be called on to maintain. It 
boasts of the sacred volume having been trans- 

d2 



36 Proofs of Inspiration. 

mitted pure by means of manuscripts ; and by 
asserting the antiquity, the freedom from corrup- 
tion, and the independence and agreement of 
the several classes of these, the Christian contends 
for the existence of his religion at the time when 
Christ and the apostles lived. Ancient writings 
are appealed to, and quotations cited by various 
authors from the New Testament are adduced, 
which go to prove the same. Even profane history 
is made to furnish contemporary evidence of the 
first rise of Christianity. Now it is the way in 
which this evidence is employed that is the point 
to be considered; the question is, in what sense all 
this can be called evidence to the mass of Chris- 
tians. All this is, in short, positive proof; and 
he who has examined manuscripts, or read the 
works in question, has gone through the demon- 
stration; but he who has not, (and this is the 
case with all, making a very few exceptions,) has 
not gone through the process of proof himself, but 
takes the conclusion on the word of others. He 
believes those who inform him, that they, or 
others, have examined manuscripts, read the 
fathers, compared profane history with holy writ. 
Can this be called reasonable faith ? or, at least, 



Scriptural Inspiration. 37 

do we not pretend to be believing on proofs of 
various kinds, when, in fact, our belief rests on 
the bare assertions of others ? 

It is very important that the case should be 
set in its true light, because, supposing the 
Christian ministry able, and at leisure, to in- 
vestigate and sift the Christian evidence for them- 
selves, the same cannot be done by the barrister, 
the physician, the professional man of whatever 
department besides theology, however enabled 
by education ; and then, what is to be the 
lot of the great mass of the people ? They, 
clearly, are incompetent even to follow up the 
several steps of proof which each proposition 
would require. They take it for granted, if they 
apply the evidence at all, that these things are so, 
because wiser persons than they say it is so. In 
the same spirit as the question was put of old, 
' Have any of the rulers believed on Christ ? but 
this people who knoweth not the law are cursed/ 
Christians must generally, it would seem, believe 
in Christ, because their spiritual rulers do, and 
reject the infidel's views, because these people 
are pronounced accursed. Nay, the supposition 
of the clergy themselves having the qualification. 



38 Proofs of Inspiration. 

and the opportunity to go through the process of 
proof, is only a supposition. They often want 
either or both, and it is impossible that it should 
not be so. The labour of a life is scarcely suffi- 
cient to examine for one's self one branch alone of 
such evidence. For the greater part, few men, 
however learned, have satisfied themselves by 
going through the proof. They have admitted 
the main assertions, because proved by others. 

And is this conviction then reasonable ? Is it 
more than the adoption of truth on the authority 
of another? It is. The principle on which all 
these assertions are received, is not that they 
have been made by this or that credible individual 
or body of persons, who have gone through the 
proof — this may have its weight with the critical 
and learned — but the main principle adopted by all, 
intelligible by all, and reasonable in itself, is, that 
these assertions are set forth, bearing on their 
face a challenge of refutation. The assertions are 
like witnesses placed in a box to be confronted. 
Scepticism, infidelity, and scoffing, form the very 
groundwork of our faith. As long as these are 
known to exist and to assail it, so long are we 
sure that any untenable assertion may and will 



Scriptural Inspiration. 39 

be refuted. The benefit accruing to Christianity 
in this respect from the occasional success of 
those who have found flaws in the several parts 
of evidence, is invaluable. We believe what is 
not disproved most reasonably, because we know 
that there are those abroad who are doing their 
utmost to disprove it. We believe the witness, 
not because we know him and esteem him, but 
because he is confronted, cross-examined, sus- 
pected, and assailed by arts fair and unfair. It 
is not his authority, but the reasonableness of 
the case. It becomes conviction well-grounded, 
and not assent to man's words. 

At the same time nothing has perhaps more 
contributed to perplex the Christian inquirer, 
than the impression which vague language creates 
of our conviction arising, not out of the applica- 
tion of this principle to the external and monu- 
mental evidences of Christianity, but out of the 
examination of the evidence itself. The mind 
feels disappointed and unsatisfied, not because it 
has not ground for belief, but because it misnames 
it. The man who has not examined any branch 
of evidence for himself, may, according to the 
principle above stated, very reasonably believe in 



40 Proofs of Inspiration. 

consequence of it ; but his belief does not arise 
immediately out of it, is not the same frame of 
mind which would be created by an actual exa- 
mination for himself. It may be more, or it may 
be less a sure source of conviction ; but the dis- 
content is occasioned, not by this circumstance, 
but by supposing that it is one of these things 
that does, or ought to, influence us, when in fact 
it is the other ; by putting ourselves in the atti- 
tude of mind which belongs to the witness, instead 
of that which belongs to the bystander. We very 
well know how the unbroken testimony of writers 
during eighteen centuries to the truth of Chris- 
tianity ought to make us feel, if we had ascer- 
tained the fact by an examination of their writings; 
and we are surprised at finding that we are not 
in that frame of mind, forgetting that our use of 
the evidence may be founded on a different prin- 
ciple. 

It is partly for this reason, perhaps, that while 
the external evidences of religion are most set forth 
as the boast and bulwark of Christianity, it is to the 
internal that the Christian most appeals in secret 
for his own satisfaction and bosom- comfort. 
Here he is at home. In this department his 



Scriptural Inspiration. 41 

belief is not indeed more reasonable, but cor- 
responds better to the anticipations he has formed 
from the character of the evidence. He here has 
no temptation to confound conviction arising out 
of one principle, with a state of mind, the ex- 
istence of which supposes another. He is himself 
the original inquirer, and goes through the process 
of actual demonstration, knows how the conclusion 
ought to affect him, and experiences the antici- 
pated result. He experiences here, what he 
thinks he ought to feel in regard to the external 
evidence, only because he has mistaken the real 
and proper ground of conviction. In the one 
case he employs a proof which all employ alike ; 
in the other, it is a proof employed in different 
ways by different persons, and it is by mistaking 
the use of this latter to him, that he is dissatisfied 
with it. The bookseller and the student may 
have each the same library ; but were the book- 
seller so unreasonable as to expect the profits of 
trade to result from his own perusal of his books, 
or the student to expect learning from selling his, 
the mistake would be more gross, but not dif- 
ferent in kind from the case of our mistaking each 
his appropriate use of the external evidences of 



42 Proofs of Inspiration. 

religion, Of these evidences, some portion, a 
large portion, every Christian must be content to 
forego in their primary use — he must be content 
with the testimony that such evidence exists ; 
some must be content, to view the whole of this 
class of proofs in this way alone. 

The more important is it therefore to examine 
accurately the character of the testimony on 
which the great superstructure of so much proof 
is built. Without such an examination, without 
ascertaining this, our belief in the evidences 
cannot be said to be reasonable ; and it is to the 
want of acquaintance with this true ground of 
belief, that much unstable faith, much secret in- 
fidelity, perhaps may be traced. While some 
slight and fly from the consideration of proofs 
which they cannot themselves examine, to the 
internal evidence of the Gospel, others are tempted 
to dismiss the inquiry altogether, or to sit down 
in cold suspicion of the stability of the boasted 
structure. The uneducated abandon the topic as 
beyond them ; the educated are led to think that 
proof which leaves them so much on a level in 
their use of it with the unlearned cannot bear 
inspection, or are offended and stumble at a body 



Scriptural Inspiration. 43 

of evidence which, in one point of view, requires 
a research incompatible with the universal claim 
of faith — the first claim of the Gospel. 

And while inquiries of all kinds are daily thrown 
open to the mass of mankind ; while the mechanic 
and day-labourer are encouraged to acquire the 
power of examining for themselves, and under- 
standing for themselves, the principles of natural 
science, and political knowledge, can the found- 
ations of our faith pass unexplored, whether they 
form a part of the circulated knowledge or not ? 
Whether the inquiry be entered on with the 
favourable impression which a Christian educa- 
tion gives, or with the spirit of scepticism wdiich 
marks the rise of national mind beyond its old 
boundaries and barriers, the ground of our belief 
in the genuineness and inspiration of the sacred 
volume will be canvassed, and canvassed by a 
race of men taught to divest themselves of the 
technical incumbrances of learning, accustomed 
to have science and literature levelled to a sort 
of democratic simplicity, and demanding not 
only a detail of that evidence which the learned 
and the professional inquirer can appreciate, but 
that which is evidence to them. When this shall 



44 Proofs of Inspiration. 

be the case, can the risk be small of appealing 
(as is commonly the case) for proofs of the 
genuineness and inspiration of the Christian 
volume, to manuscripts and extracts from fathers 
and historians, without at the same time carefully 
pointing out how far, and in what way that 
evidence is evidence to the inquirer? Can we 
even now safely, not to say honestly, do so ? To 
minds newly awakened to inquiry, unsatisfactory 
proof, be it remembered, is not merely idle, but 
mischievous; it is like a weapon feebly hurled at 
a reckless intruder, whom you at once provoke 
and furnish with the means of retaliation. To a 
mere publication of the evidences of Christi- 
anity — to such works as Paley's or Lardner's — will 
not the mechanic and the labourer of the next 
generation reply, ' We have been accustomed in 
learning the principles of astronomy, politics, 
chemistry, &c. to have the elements of proof 
submitted to us for examination ; why should we 
be expected to satisfy our minds on this one 
subject with a bare statement, which affords no 
corresponding means of experiment? We can 
understand that such proofs as are described in 
the account of manuscripts examined, ancient, 



Scriptural Inspiration. 45 

authors searched, and passages extracted, the 
structure of language analysed and brought to 
bear on the age and character of the Scriptures — 
we can understand that all this may exist; but 
are we not justified in withholding our assent, 
whilst to us all these sources of evidence are 
inaccessible, and rest only on the testimony of 
others?' 

It is for this awakened feeling of independence 
in inquiry, (and it is a feeling which is growing, 
and must daily grow,) that the display of the 
true claims of the external evidences of Christi- 
anity is important ; is, we may say, urgently 
important. Men of all ranks will expect and 
demand that this evidence, if evidence at all, 
should be made so to them. They must be told, 
that it is the statement of it, the testimony given 
to it, which they are properly called on to 
examine, and believe ; they must be made to 
understand that this is the only way in which 
the great mass of evidence for all the facts of 
history, sacred or profane, ancient or modern, 
can be applied ; their attention must be directed 
from a vague consideration of the original sources 
of proof, to the justness of assenting to that 



46 Proofs of Inspiration. 

testimony on which belief is claimed for the ex- 
istence of such proofs ; they must be taught, in 
short, to appreciate the principle, that such 
testimony must be unexceptionable, so long as 
Protestant freedom holds out a challenge to the 
educated sceptics of all ages and countries to 
confront it, and to invalidate its statements. 
This, indeed, is one of the noblest privileges of 
our release from papal bondage. The Church of 
Rome allows no sceptical declarations, and her 
assertions of the existence of all this external 
evidence must be admitted therefore on unreason- 
able grounds ; the Church of England, and all 
Protestant Churches, give liberty to the adver- 
saries of the Gospel to cavil and object ; and on 
this liberty is grounded a just requisition of 
assent to those statements which the adversary 
cannot disprove. Let this be our strong hold in 
the advance of free-thinking and scepticism, and 
it becomes strong in proportion as free-thinkers 
and sceptics are bold and busy. Providence, it 
would seem, has thus designed the efforts of the 
most formidable adversaries of Christianity to 
prove the most important support to its truth. 
Blindly, indeed, they accomplish this good end, 



Internal proof s of Scriptural Inspiration. 47 

and blindly in every age have those laboured in 
fulfilling the divine will who have most pre- 
sumptuously opposed it. Like the Assyrian, 
who was the rod of God's anger, they mean it 
not, neither do their hearts think so ; like the 
Jews taking counsel against the Lord and his 
Anointed, they are fulfilling God's will, and con- 
tributing to his glory, although through ignorance 
they do it. 

§.4. Internal proofs of Scriptural Inspiration. 

As miracle is the only proof of Inspiration, the 
internal evidence, requisite to establish this in 
the case of any Scripture, must consist, either in 
some miracle being implied in the authorship, or 
else in some indication that the author performed 
testimonial miracles. 

By miraculous authorship is meant something, 
either in the subject-matter, or in the manner of 
writing, which surpasses the powers of man 
generally, or of the particular author — some 
departure, in short, from the usual course of 
man's moral and intellectual agency, which can 
only be referred to divine wisdom ; even as in a 



48 Proofs of Inspiration. 

miracle commonly so called, there is a departure 
from the established course of the material world, 
such as can only be attributed to divine power. 

The Bible has several points of authorship 
which are strictly of this character. Not that 
every one of the revelations it contains, or pro- 
fesses to contain, can be appealed to for evidence. 
For, although none but God could have com- 
municated any such knowledge, yet, in the case 
of all, except fulfilled prophecy, we cannot pro- 
nounce that they are really revelations, until we 
know that the author's assertion of this fact was 
supported by testimonial miracles. Prophecy 
fulfilled indeed may be so employed ; because 
its fulfilment is voucher for its divine origin. 

Most of the internal proofs of Inspiration fall 
under the description which I have given of 
miraculous authorship. But there are also strong 
indications, furnished by the Scriptures them- 
selves, that the authors performed miracles in the 
attestation of their inspiration ; and these I will 
first notice. 



Testimonial miracles. 49 



$.5. Internal proofs that the authors of Scripture 
performed testimonial miracles. 

In the early part of St. Paul's first Epistle to 
the Corinthians, we meet with these words; "I 
was with you in weakness and in fear, and in 
much trembling. And my speech and my 
preaching was not with enticing words of man's 
wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and 
of power*." Further on in the same Epistle 
occurs the following passage, together with much 
more to the same general purpose : "If any man 
speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, 
or at the most by three, and that by course ; and 
let one interpret. But if there be no interpreter, 
let him keep silence in the church ; and let him 
speak to himself, and to God. Let the prophets 
speak two or three, and let the other judge. 
If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth 
by, let the first hold his peace. For ye may all 
prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all 
may be comforted. And the spirits of the pro- 
phets are subject to the prophets." "What! 

r Chap. ii. 3, 4. 
E 



50 Proofs of Inspiration. 

came the word of God out from you? or came 
it unto you only? If any man think himself to 
be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge 
that the things that I write unto you are the 
commandments of the Lord ? ." 

It is evident that the author of this Epistle 
addressed it, not to one or two individuals, but 
to a body of men, and that he is appealing to 
them, directly or indirectly, for the reality of 
three facts, about which no body of men could 
possibly have been mistaken. The first of these 
i% that when Paul converted them, it was not 
owing to the impression which his eloquence or 
his wisdom made, but to the miraculous proofs 
of inspiration which he displayed — " the demon- 
stration of the Spirit and of power." The next 
point is, that part of this demonstration con- 
sisted in the communication of miraculous power, 
which they were then exercising so generally, 
as to require that they should be corrected in 
the abuse and irregular employment of it. The 
third point is, that among these miraculous gifts 
was one which enabled the "prophet or spi- 
ritual" person to decide whether Paul had written 

s Chap. xiv. 27—32. and 36, 37. 



Testimonial miracles. 51 

the uncontrolled suggestions of his own mind ; 
or the commands of the Lord — in other words, 
whether the Epistle was or was not Scripture. 

Now it is morally impossible that an author 
should have written in this way, unless the facts 
so implied were all notoriously true. There is no 
direct assertion of these facts — no attempt to 
prove them, or to suggest circumstances which 
would call them to mind, as if they were likely 
to be unknown or forgotten. It is taken for 
granted, that all was as notorious as the sun at 
noon-day; and so certain as to preclude all pos- 
sibility of denial. The proof therefore derived 
from this and similar implied assertions, is of 
a different kind from that which belongs to the 
direct assertion of a credible author, that miracles 
were wrought by him ; and that his words were 
inspired. It is an appeal to eye-witnesses — 
and it is more — it is an appeal to persons con- 
scious of performing the very like miracles — it 
is a claim to Scriptural authority for the author's 
writings, of which some of those addressed, as 
well as he, possessed a miraculous test. All 
this, if it had been stated by the author to a third 
party, would have been mere assertion, and 

e2 



52 Proofs of Inspiration. 

would have required to be proved ; but conveyed 
to us as it is — that is, not requiring to be formally 
stated, but only alluded to, in a letter to the 
party concerned — it involves the very testimony 
on which alone such a statement can rest. 

To illustrate the argument by a supposed case 
analogous to it. If a Belgian were to bring to 
this country a report of a revolt in the Nether- 
lands, and of scenes of bloodshed at Brussels 
and elsewhere, his report would not necessarily 
be true ; and according to its improbability, would 
require more or less proof. But, suppose this 
Belgian a man of consequence in his own country, 
and conspicuous for the part he had taken in the 
Revolution : suppose him writing to his country- 
men from England ; not, of course, to relate 
occurrences which they had witnessed as welt as 
he, but to give them directions about the manage- 
ment of their affairs, in consequence of the situ- 
ation they were placed in by the late events : 
suppose him, moreover, reminding them of the 
claim he had to their acquiescence in his advice, 
from the part which he had borne in those scenes, 
as well as from some commission which he then 
actually held for their provisional government : 



Testimonial miracles. 53 

is it likely that such a letter would be sent, 
unless the writer were alluding to facts, not only 
true, but notoriously true ? is it conceivable, that 
it should be not only received by the Belgians, 
but carefully preserved by them, and transmitted 
by them to posterity ? 

This sort of evidence, by which the writer of 
the first Epistle to the Corinthians is proved to 
have performed testimonial miracles, does not 
belong indeed to all the Scriptures of the Old 
and New Testament. To many however it does 
apply; although not always so forcibly, because 
in the instance of Paul's Epistle, the force of the 
evidence consists chiefly in the Scripture which 
contains the assertion, or implied assertion, of 
miracles, having been addressed to those who 
witnessed the miracles ; and this circumstance, 
which is declared by the very form of an Epistle, 
requires to be proved in the case of history or of 
prophecy. The Pentateuch, for example, was ad- 
dressed to eye-witnesses of the miracles asserted, 
no less than were St. Paul's Epistles ; but the fact 
is not, of itself, so apparent. In some other 
portions of the Bible, our knowledge of this cir- 
cumstance rests wholly on external evidences. 



54 Proofs of Inspiration, 



$.6. Prophecy fulfilled a proof of Inspiration. 

It is not my intention to enumerate the pro- 
phecies of the Old and New Testament, which 
become by their accomplishment evidence of 
scriptural inspiration ; but, as in the case of 
the external evidence, shall chiefly direct my 
remarks to the principle which renders them 
evidence. 

For this purpose it is necessary that four 
points be ascertained. I. That the prophecy was 
delivered previously to the event — else it would 
be no prophecy. II. That it applies to the event, 
and is applicable to no other ; for a prediction 
that should seem to be fulfilled in more events 
than one, would not only leave it uncertain which 
was intended ; but would betray the absence of 
that extraordinary prescience, which is displayed 
in fixing on the peculiar circumstances and distinct 
characteristics of the future event li . III. It is 

d What is called the double fulfilment of some of the 
prophecies, is, in fact, only a repetition of the prophecy, in one 



Prophecy. 55 

requisite that the event be such as could not 
have been foreseen by any human means ; for 
then its prediction might be proof of sagacity, 
but not of inspiration. IV. That it should not 
produce its own fulfilment — as in the case of 
those heathen oracles which so often suggested 
the measures by which they w T ere apparently 
verified. 

The most striking prophecies are accordingly 
those, which contradict the results of our ordi- 
nary calculations about the future. For example, 
it being requisite that the early Christians should 
be deeply impressed with the Lord's prediction 
of Jerusalem's destruction, and their own deliver- 
ance from the scene of ruin, he not only fore- 
told this, but appended a direction which ran 

of the cases. For example, Isaiah foretold that our Lord 
should open the eyes of the blind; and his miraculous cures 
of the blind were types and prophetical figures of the removal 
of that spiritual blindness, which was the real object of the 
prophecy. So in the case of those predictions which were 
fulfilled primarily in certain temporal events which befel 
the Israelites, secondarily and fully in the spiritual events of 
the Church — the true Israel, of which the former was the per- 
petual type. 



56 Proofs of Inspiration. 

counter to all views of human prudence and fore- 
sight. The disciples were commanded to tarry 
within Jerusalem, until they saw the city en- 
compassed with hostile armies e . It is well 
known that they had faith to do this, and that 
by a change in the plans of the enemy, which 
no human foresight could have anticipated, they 
were then enabled to escape without harm. 

Of the many prophecies of the Old Testament 
to which the test may be applied, it will he suf- 
ficient, for the sake of illustration, to select that 
of Isaiah f : " Behold, my servant shall deal pru- 
dently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be 
very high. As many were astonished at thee; (his 
visage was so marred more than any man, and 
his form more than the sons of men ;) so shall 
he sprinkle many nations ; the kings shall shut 
their mouths at him : for that which had not 
been told them shall they see, and that which 
they had not heard shall they consider. Who 
hath believed our report? and to whom is the 
arm of the Lord revealed ? For he shall grow up 

c Luke xxi. 20, 21. compare Matt. xxiv. 15. and Mark 
xiii. 14. f Chap. Hi. 13 — 15. and chap. liii. 



Prophecy. 57 

before him as a tender plant, and as a root out 
of a dry ground; he hath no form nor comeliness ; 
and when we shall see him, there is no beauty 
that we should desire him. He is despised and 
rejected of men ; a man of sorrows, and ac- 
quainted with grief: and we hid as it were our 
faces from him ; he was despised, and we 
esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our 
griefs, and carried our sorrows : yet we did 
esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and af- 
flicted. But he was wounded for our transgres- 
sions, he was bruised for our iniquities : the 
chastisement of our peace was upon him ; and 
with his stripes we are healed. All we, like 
sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every 
one to his own way : and the Lord hath laid on 
him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, 
and he was afflicted ; yet he opened not his 
mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, 
and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so 
he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from 
prison and from judgment : and who shall de- 
clare his generation ? for he was cut off out of 
the land of the living: for the transgression of 
my people was he stricken. And he made his 



58 Proofs of Inspiration. 

grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his 
death ; because he had done no violence, neither 
was any deceit in his month. Yet it pleased the 
Lord to braise him; he hath put him to grief: 
when thou shalt make his soul an offering for 
sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his 
days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper 
in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his 
soul, and shall be satisfied : by his knowledge 
shall my righteous servant justify many ; for he 
shall bear their iniquities. Therefore w T ill I 
divide him a portion w T ith the great, and he shall 
divide the spoil with the strong ; because he hath 
poured out his soul unto death : and he was 
numbered with the transgressors : and he bare 
the sin of many, and made intercession for the 
transgressors g ." 

That these words formed part of the book of 
Isaiah long before the appearance of our Lord 
Jesus Christ on earth, is known by the most un- 
suspicious of all testimony — the testimony of the 
Jew^s who rejected him, and refused to recognise 
its fulfilment in him. That it was, in the second 
place, fulfilled in him, and can apply to no other 

8 See Paley's Evidences, vol. ii. p. 3. 



Prophecy. 59 

person, is clear to an impartial mind, even from 
so much of his history as all admit. It com- 
prises, namely, circumstances seemingly incon- 
sistent, and which were nevertheless combined 
in the singular character and condition of Jesus ; 
and among these are some which are quite in- 
dependent of our belief in him as our Lord and 
Saviour. Jew, Heathen, and Christian, are alike 
vouchers for the fact, that " he made his grave 
with the wicked/' that " he was numbered with 
the transgressors," and " poured out his soul unto 
death;" and yet that the result was " a portion 
with the great, and a dividing the spoil with the 
strong" — such a spread and sway, namely, of the 
religion of Christ crucified, as that the mightiest 
dominions of the earth have divided their allegiance 
between Him as their spiritual Lord, and the 
great and strong rulers of this world. This same 
combination of unnatural coincidences, makes 
the prophecy answer likewise the third and 
fourth requisites — that the event should not be 
capable of anticipation by any human means ; 
and lastly, that it should not produce its own 
fulfilment. 

The most striking prophecies of the New 



60 Proofs of Inspiration. 

Testament — those delivered by our Saviour him- 
self — must be excluded from the evidence for an 
inspiration of Scripture ; because, in recording 
these, the writer only professes to give the pre- 
dictions of another ; and this he might be sup- 
posed to do, without being himself endowed with 
any prophetic or inspired character. These pro- 
phecies form a very important feature in the 
scheme of general evidences for Christianity ; but 
cannot be applied to our present purpose. 

The exception still leaves some, the accomplish- 
ment of which has rendered them very satisfactory 
evidence of the inspiration of the authors who 
wrote them. Those of St. Paul respecting " the 
man of sin" and the " general apostacy" may be 
instanced. In his second Epistle to the Thessa- 
lonians, we find the following passage ; " Let no 
man deceive you by any means : for that day 
shall not come, except there come a falling away 
first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of 
perdition ■ who opposeth and exalteth himself 
above all that is called God, or that is wor- 
shipped ; so that he, as God, sitteth in the 
temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. 
Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with 



Prophecy. 61 

you, I told you these things ? And now ye know 
what withholdeth, that he might be revealed in 
his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already 
work : only he who now letteth, will let, until he 
be taken out of the way. And then shall that 
Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall con- 
sume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall 
destroy with the brightness of his coming : even 
him, whose coming is after the working of Satan; 
with all power and signs and lying wonders, and 
with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in 
them that perish ; because they received not the 
love of the truth, that they might be saved. 
And for this cause God shall send them strong 
delusion, that they should believe a lie : that 
they all might be damned who believed not the 
truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness 15 ." 

That this description of some great corruption 
and subsequent reformation in the Church was 
written while the Roman government was yet 
heathen, and its stability unshaken, we know on 
evidence the same in kind, (although far stronger 
in degree,) as that which assures us of the age of 
Pliny's or Cicero's Epistles. Its preservation 

" 2Thess. ii. 3—12. 



62 Proofs of Inspiration. 

too, without being subsequently corrupted for the 
purpose of adapting it to the event, has been 
(as in the case of Isaiah's prophecy) most pro- 
videntially accomplished through those very per- 
sons whom it condemns. The Papal Church, 
like the Jews of old, attest the purity of those 
Scriptures, out of which its corruptions are 
proved, and shewn to have been predicted. 
There is, moreover, in the above description, 
so exact a correspondence with the leading cor- 
ruptions of Popery and the subsequent reform- 
ation of a large portion of the Church, as to 
satisfy the greater number of Protestants, at 
least, of the second requisite of a prophecy — 
that it should apply to the event, and to that 
event only. These circumstances, again, (if the 
application be correct,) are so far removed from 
any view which mere reason and human fore- 
sight could have suggested to a writer at the 
period of the Roman empire's greatness and of 
the Church's infancy, as to make it certain that 
the source of such knowledge was inspired wis- 
dom, and the fulfilment not the mere result of 
the prediction. 

In asserting for this prophecy the character of 



Prophecy. 63 

evidence to the inspiration of the writer, I would 
not however be thought to overlook the fact, 
that of Christians, the Roman Catholics, at least, 
do not acknowledge the application ; and that 
among Protestants, there have been some who 
have likewise denied this ; and have sought for 
the event in the impieties and cruelties of Cali- 
gula 1 , the extravagancies of the Gnostics k , the 
revolt of the Jews from the Romans 1 , and even 
the triumphant career of Titus" 1 . For the failure 
of such an exact correspondence as is required to 
the character of a prophecy, in all these instances, 
the reader, if he has any doubts that require to 
be removed, may consult Bp. Newton's twenty- 
second Dissertation on the Prophecies. In the 
same Dissertation, or in Mr. Davison's tenth 
Discourse, he will likewise find the fulfilment as 
exhibited in the History of the Church's Popish 
corruptions, and of the subsequent Reformation, 
distinctly traced — if indeed his own impression, 
after reading the passage, leaves him in need of 
a guide. 

• Grotius. k Hammond. l Le Clerc and Whitby. 

'" Wetstein. 



64 Proofs of Inspiration. 

It should be observed, however, that the use 
of this, and of all internal evidence, depends, 
much more than the use of the external, on the 
peculiar habits of thought, the character, and the 
pursuits of the inquirer. In short, whilst nearly 
the same impression may be made on all by 
a display of external proof, the same internal 
evidence, which is all-convincing to one, will be 
feeble to another, and no evidence at all to a 
third. The fact every thinking mind will ac- 
knowledge, (not in the case of religion alone, but 
on other subjects also,) and I shall have occasion 
again to revert to it. 

And especially with respect to the force of 
prophecy fulfilled, it should be further taken 
into the account, that the prophecies of the 
Bible do not make their full impression singly 
but collectively. They are — however distinct the 
human authors in character, and however far 
apart the periods in which they wrote — a tissue 
of mutual references. Take from the mass a 
separate prophecy, it probably applies so inade- 
quately to the event claimed for it, that we are 
ready to own, that so far from being applicable 
to that and that alone, its correspondence would 



Prophecy. 65 

never have struck us, but for the aid of the 
ingenious commentator. Take that same pro- 
phecy ; join it on to others, which it was evidently 
designed to follow up or to precede — to intro- 
duce or expand ; and as we add part to part, 
the whole assumes an applicability, that makes 
us wonder at our former blindness. 

We do not justice, for example, to this very 
passage of St. Paul, if we make use of the pro- 
phecy as it there appears alone. He evidently 
did not so express himself, as if he thought that 
all the reader was to know of it was contained 
in those words. He reminds the Thessalonians, 
that whilst he was with them he had told them 
these things; and therefore adapts what he now 
says to knowledge otherwise acquired. To put 
ourselves in the condition of the Thessalonians, 
so as to embrace in our view all the prophecy, 
we must join the apostle's hints to all with 
which they are connected in other Scriptures, and 
so interpret them. To my own mind, I confess, 
the passage alone exhibits such a curious and 
nice counterpart to the history of the Papal 
corruptions, and of the Church's reformation, 
that it does not seem to need this, in order that 

F 



6 6 Proofs of Inspira tion . 

we may so apply it ; but the picture is much 
heightened by adding to it the same apostle's 
mention elsewhere of the same prophetic view ; 
where he adds the circumstances of " speaking 
lies in hypocrisy," " forbidding to marry," " com- 
manding to abstain from meats"," and the like. 
But when I compare it further with the thirteenth 
and fourteenth chapters of the Apocalypse, and 
both with those prophecies of the Old Testament, 
with which they are connected by a similarity of 
imagery, the shadowy outline assumes more and 
more the full lineaments of a portrait. 



§.7. The moral instruction contained in Scripture 
a proof of inspiration. 

That the moral instruction contained in the 
Old Testament is worthy of its divine Author ; 
and that the exceptions which have been taken 
against it apply to what were, in fact, only wise 
and merciful accommodations to the circumstances 
and condition of the people to whom it was origin- 

" 1 Tim. iv. 3, 4. 



Moral instruction. 67 

ally addressed, need not here be insisted on. It is 
a view which contributes, indeed, to render the 
evidence of that portion of the Bible's inspiration 
satisfactory; it is a view, which to one who has 
thoughtfully traced the contemporary progress of 
heathen ethics, may seem to indicate more than 
mere human authorship. But still, these books 
were the literature of a people ; their authors 
were the learned and highly-gifted of their nation ; 
and if the sound and practical lessons of conduct 
which their writings convey far surpass the 
teaching of their age, it is conceivable that this 
might be because it was the subject on which 
the national mind had displayed its greatest 
energies. One country will get the start of another 
in some particular branch of science or of art — ■ 
in eloquence, in poetry, or in criticism; and in 
these cases, all that can be positively asserted is, 
that individuals of superior talent have arisen, 
who have given a direction to the national pursuits ; 
and that subsequent specimens of excellence in 
these, are partly proofs of the individual's genius, 
partly of the character of the community to which 
he belongs. 

It is not so with the moral instruction con- 

f2 



68 Proofs of Inspiration. 

tained in the New Testament. Its authors cer- 
tainly did not represent the learning, the genius, 
and the spirit of their age and country. Their 
rank in life, their daily occupations, their acquire- 
ments, and not least the tone of their writings, 
exclude them from the class of those who would 
be naturally authors; and far from availing them- 
selves of the literary habits of their age and 
country, they afford in their writings the most 
marked contrast to the specimens of Rabbinical 
learning that have come down to us. What 
should we say of a few fishermen on the coast of 
Sussex, or a few mechanics of Manchester or 
Birmingham, who should publish to the world 
such views of political science, as should remove 
all the difficulties that at this day encumber 
politics, and obtain more influence than the 
laboured volumes of all the philosophers and 
statesmen of modern and ancient Europe ? It is 
a supposition which is morally impossible : and 
that the authors of the New Testament should 
embody in their writings ethical instruction more 
pure, and far more practical, than ever before 
had been addressed to mankind, is equally im- 
possible, without the intervention of superhuman 



Moral instruction. 69 

help. That philosophical minds, aided by learning 
and learned communication, should have effected 
this, would be no otherwise wonderful, than that 
Socrates or Bacon should surpass their age. 
But that the promulgators of the sublimest, and 
at the same time the simplest, ethical views in 
the world should be, in the first place, humble, 
uneducated persons ; and, in the next place, 
members of a community, in which, whatever 
literature there was, was encumbered with the 
subtleties of a minute and intricate commentary, 
and with fanciful allegory ; this is not merely 
wonderful, like the work of a Socrates or Bacon — 
not evidence of superior human intellect — but 
unaccountable, on any view, which the ordinary 
course of man^s intellectual nature enables us to 
form. 

If however we cannot admit the force of this 
argument, in its full extent, to Paul, who had 
learning, or, perhaps, to Luke ; it applies without 
any diminution to Matthew, to John, and to Peter; 
but even to Paul, it must be allowed to apply 
with no inconsiderable force. Whatever education 
he had, it was Rabbinical ; and from this school 
clearly he could not have derived the simple and 



70 Proofs of Inspiration. 

unsophisticated view of morals, which alone would 
distinguish any epistle of his from a Rabbinical 
writing. He had, in fact, much to unlearn 
through the influence of the Spirit; and does most 
expressly, and more than once, disavow all re- 
liance on his natural human acquirements. 

Nor, again, will it much affect the argument to 
suggest, that the writers of the New Testament 
were not the authors of these moral views, but 
Jesus, the Master, whose disciples they were : 
and that the morality of the New Testament, 
although proof of a superior nature or of inspir- 
ation in him, is no proof of inspiration in those 
who record his instructions. This argument 
might apply, indeed, to a mere concise statement 
of facts, or sayings, or to a few foundation doc- 
trines ; but moral instruction, conveyed as it is 
in the New Testament, interwoven and mixed 
with the general matter of the author, is not like 
a series of facts, or a collection of apophthegms, 
which can be exactly related or transferred from 
one to another. So to convey ethical views 
which one has received, as to make them one's 
own — especially to convey them unsystematically 
and incidentally — supposes the mind to have put 



Moral instruction. 71 

on new habits, not merely to have committed to 
memory certain facts. A regular code of ethics, 
or a series of moral precepts, might be trans- 
mitted from mouth to mouth for a few genera- 
tions. These authors might have related the 
actions of our Lord — they might even have pre- 
served in their pages his prophecies — without 
being themselves inspired men and prophets. 
All this is conceivable ; and accordingly in the 
view of prophecy considered as proof of Scriptural 
inspiration, I have expressly excluded our Lord's 
prophecies from the argument. But the moral 
teaching of the New Testament (beyond the bare 
register of his sermons and parables) cannot be 
so considered. 

When, therefore, it is suggested, that Jesus 
was the author of this morality, the suggestion 
still leaves unanswered the question, how could 
he so teach these persons, as after a two or three 
years' companionship, to be themselves accom- 
plished teachers ? Not only is the old inquiry 
of the Jews respecting Christ forced on us, 
''Whence had this man learning?" but an- 
other no less puzzling on any ordinary view, 
Whence had he the means of so suddenly trans- 



72 Proofs of Inspiration. 

ferring this learning to others n ? To the divine 
origin of the Christian religion, indeed, the 
morality of the Gospel is equally evidence in 
whatever way this latter question is answered ; but 
if the reasonable reply be, that the instruction 
his followers obtained must have been more than 
human, then the morality of their writings is 
proof that these writings were inspired. And 
such, I conceive, is the conclusion, at which 
every mind, neither biassed by prejudice, nor made 
callous by habitual neglect of religion, must 
arrive. In the strength of the impression pro- 
duced there must always be differences of degree, 
according to the constitution and habits of dif- 
ferent minds ; but if the truth itself be altogether 
unperceived, this can, I fear, be attributed only 
to a corruption and unnatural state of the in- 
tellectual powers. The eye that has been closed 
from infancy, if opened in manhood or age, can- 
not be expected at once to measure the distance 

n Such appears to have been actually the impression made 
on many of the Jews. " Now when they saw the boldness of 
Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and 
ignorant men, they marvelled ; and they took knowledge of 
them, that they had been with Jesus." Acts iv. 13. 



Moral instruction. 73 

of the objects exhibited to it even in the clearest 
light, and to perform all those complicated func- 
tions of sight, which exercise and experience 
render familiar to others. So is it with the 
spiritual discernment of the mind. 

And yet, it may be said, although Christ came 
that those who see not might see, how are these, the 
blind in heart and intellect, to be now convinced 
of their blindness ? how, if not convinced, to be 
healed ? Is not this case a hopeless one ? Will 
not the Pharisee of every age say, "We see?" 
and will not the contemptuous suggestion of 
human pride still be, " Are we blind also ?" 
To what purpose then is the roll of evidence 
unfolded, if to those who most need it, it presents 
one dull unmeaning blank ? The reply is plain. 
On the chance of conversion and salvation which 
the most deplorable case of this kind may ex- 
hibit, we have no right to speculate. Every 
Christian — every one who himself believes — is a 
soldier of Christ, and is furnished more or less 
with the armour of God ; with the sword of the 
Spirit, as well as with the helmet of salvation; and 
while the command is, ll Quit ye like men, be 
strong, " he is also told, that not on himself 



74 Proofs of Inspiration. 

depends the issue — he is to " be strong in the 
Lord, and in the power of his might." Shall we 
therefore, any of us, dare to cast aside the weapons 
of our warfare, as if on them and on ourselves 
depended the success ? Shall any, and, above 
all, shall the Christian minister say, " Am I God, 
that I should heal these souls of their leprosy ?" 
forgetting, that in Israel — in his own true Israel — 
there is still, though unseen, the Prophet, whose 
hand, not ours, is to effect the cure. Dis- 
heartening doubts like these, that come across 
the efforts of a Christian on his Master's errand, 
can only be so long indulged, as he is forgetting 
the humble part which is his to act. Were it 
a sensible miracle he is performing, instead of 
developing or enforcing an argument, he would 
not more truly be the mere instrument, nor the 
work more truly his Lord's alone. Let him not 
therefore look to the feebleness of the apparent 
means, or say, Who then shall be saved ? That 
Master, to whose service he is pledged, has 
taught him another language — one more con- 
fident, and yet more humble — more confident in 
divine power, more humble in his estimate of his 
own importance; he will say, " With man this is 



Omissions of Scripture. 75 

impossible, but not with God ; for with God all 
things are possible." 



§.8. The omissions of Scripture a proof of 
Inspiration. 

One of the most striking features in the his- 
torical part of the New Testament, (to which I 
would confine the application of the present 
argument,) is the omission of so much matter, 
which would have gratified every reader's curi- 
osity ; and which every writer, one would think, 
would have been anxious to record. In the 
biography of the blessed Jesus, for example, 
there is none of that minute description of his 
person, dress, private habits, and the like, which 
we should fully expect to find, when we recollect 
especially that two of his biographers were his 
own familiar friends. None but the most scanty 
notice is found of that large portion of his life, which 
intervened from his circumcision to his tempta- 
tion ; pregnant with interest, as any occurrence of 
that period must have proved, both to them and 
to all generations of Christians. This is very 



76 Proofs of Inspiration. 

extraordinary, very unnatural, Look at the pre- 
tended gospels, which have been excluded from 
our canon, and the introduction of these topics 
is precisely what the uninspired writer has made 
part of his history ; because he felt that it was 
natural. It matters not whether the pseudo- 
evangelist received these facts from tradition, or 
himself invented them ; he was sure that they 
would give a natural and genuine air to his story, 
and so he made use of them. Why was this not 
done by Matthew, by Mark, by Luke, and by 
John ? Why should all omit to do it ? 

In order to perceive, that some counter-human 
influence must have been exerted in the author- 
ship of these gospels, it is not necessary that 
we should comprehend the wisdom of the omis- 
sions ; the fact is at variance with the esta- 
blished laws of man's nature, and of itself indi- 
cates a supernatural interference. That it was 
however a wise provision, and worthy of that 
interference, is, I think, as evident to us now, as 
it must have been beyond human foresight at the 
time it was done. Let us but reflect on the mis- 
chievous and fatal results which have followed, 
whenever the Christian's faith and piety have 



Omissions of Scripture. 77 

been diverted from the essential view of his Re- 
deemer, to fabulous relics of the cross on which 
he died — the handkerchief which wiped his brow 
— and other personal memorials of him, which, 
if real and genuine, would, like the brazen ser- 
pent of the Israelites, only have been more likely 
to retain their hold on the superstitious venera- 
tion, the distorted piety, of successive genera- 
tions. Experience shews that it would have been 
so. If pretended relics, if fabled accounts, were 
capable of seducing for ages the devotion of all 
Christendom from the Lord, to objects which 
became to them idols; what would have been the 
result, had all these been genuine and true? 
How should we have ever recovered from the 
spell, with which inherited habits and associations 
would have been investing no golden calf of 
man's own invention — but objects, that, like the 
brasen serpent, had been sanctified by association 
with miracle and divine help, and treasured up 
within the very ark of our covenant ? 

Again, how little do the evangelist-apostles say 
of their own ministry, as far as it was contem- 
porary with his who is the principal subject of 
their histories ? They and their companions were 



78 Proofs of Inspiration. 

commissioned to work miracles. They fulfilled 
their commission. So far we are informed. Now 
let any one imagine himself, after taking such a 
part in such a commission, writing a memoir, 
and saying no more of what he did — what he 
felt — than these writers have. Endeavour to put 
yourself for a moment in their situation. Think 
of the strange, bewildering sensation of the first 
miracle you found yourself performing ! Could 
you ever have become historian of the scene in 
which it occurred, and have summed up the whole 
account by saying, " And they went out, and 
preached that men should repent. And they cast 
out many devils, and anointed with oil many that 
were sick, and healed them °?" The only mi- 
racle belonging to this period of their ministry, 
about which the apostles give any particulars, is 
one attempted, and not performed by them p . 

Mark vi. 12, 13. St. Mark's Gospel is quoted; on the 
ground that its inspired authorship appears to have rested on 
St. Peter having either furnished the materials, or superin- 
tended it. In the Gospel of St. Matthew, only the account of 
their mission is given; and St. John is totally silent about 
the whole affair. 

p Matthew xvii. 14. 



Omissions of Scripture. 79 

Nor let it be supposed, that the argument de- 
pends on our knowledge from other sources that 
these miracles were wrought. He who forged 
such an account, and he who wrote the truth 
according to his free natural impulse, must alike 
have fashioned his statements, in a way directly 
opposite to the Gospel narratives. It is of itself 
and independently an indication of extra-human 
authorship, which may serve to confirm our proofs 
that miracles were really wrought; and, if we 
have not yet been satisfied by these proofs, suf- 
ficient to impress us with conviction more or less 
strong, that miraculous agency is apparent in 
the writings of these men, and to establish and 
coincide with their statements respecting miracles 
performed. 

The absence of any code of laws for regulating 
the government of the Church, and of a form of 
Liturgy, is all equally inexplicable ; whether we 
consider how naturally, how inevitably this would 
have been done by a human compiler of " The 
Acts of the Apostles ;" or add to this the strong 
additional circumstance, that those who omitted 
to do it were Jews, before they were Christians — 
men accustomed to the most minute and punc- 



80 Proofs of Inspiration. 

tilious details of a written, ceremonial law ; and 
claiming for Christianity a connection with that 
law — preaching the Gospel as founded on it. 

So extraordinary indeed are these omissions, 
that it is much to be regretted that they are 
not noticed in any work on the evidences of 
our religion k . Men's minds so much vary with 
respect to the impression made by internal 
evidence, (as I have already had occasion to 
remark,) that many, possibly, who are not much 
impressed by any views of prophecy fulfilled, or 
of Gospel morality, may be forcibly struck and 
satisfied by this. To analyse and detail all the 
internal evidences of Christianity, and to give 
to each portion that relative importance which it 
will bear in each man's mind, would be im- 
possible. But it is still useful to exhibit such a 
variety, as may, with God's blessing, suggest 
to each individual the proof which is most ap- 
propriate to him. Neither the writer on evidence 
nor the student should ever forget, that it is 
relative; the one should remember, that he has 

h A recent publication, however, although not directly on the 
evidences of Christianity, contains some very valuable remarks 
on the subject. See " Errors of Romanism," chap. iv. §. 6. 



Peculiarities in the Scripture narratives. s I 

to search for proof that will be proof to him — the 
other, that he has to furnish proofs various 
enough for such a choice ; the student, that it is 
necessary for him to come to the study with some 
preparation of heart, and intellect, else God will 
not be at all inquired of by him — the teacher, 
that he must provide, as far as he can, not only 
meat for the strong, but milk for the babes — 
matter for the feeble and infantine spirit of 
inquiry. 



§.9. Proof of Inspiration derived from certain 
peculiarities in the Scripture narratives. 

The general character of simplicity by which 
the writers of the New Testament are strikingly 
distinguished from Rabbinical authors, has already 
been incidentally noticed. The particular feature 
of it, to which I would now advert, as evidencing 
inspired influence, is a remarkable characteristic 
of their narratives. Considering the nature of 
the events related by the evangelical historians 
and biographers, the connection of the writers 
with those events, the deep and general interest 

G 



82 Proofs of Inspiration. 

they were calculated to excite, and the im- 
portance of their results on mankind here and 
hereafter — the tone and manner in which they 
are recorded, is a marvel for which there is no 
solution altogether satisfactory, except that the 
authors themselves had received, as such, an 
official inspired character, in consequence of 
which all the ordinary symptoms of mere human 
feeling — of surprise, curiosity, or regret — were 
repressed. Read these narratives as official 
documents set forth by the inspired servants of 
the Most High, and all is intelligible ; otherwise 
there is no understanding the frame of mind in 
which they wrote. 

Theirs is a history of miracles, the historical 
picture of the scene in which the Spirit of God 
was poured on all flesh, and signs and wonders, 
visions and dreams, were part of the essentials of 
their narratives. How is all this related ? With 
the same absence of high colouring and extrava- 
gant description with which other writers notice 
the ordinary occurrences of the world: partly, no 
doubt, for the like reason, that they were really 
familiar with miracles ; partly too, because to 
them these miracles had long been contemplated 



Peculiarities in the Scripture narratives. 83 

only as subservient measures to the great object 
and business of their ministry — the salvation of 
men's souls. On the subject of miracles, the 
means to this great end, they speak in calm, 
unimpassioned language ; on man's sins, change 
of heart, on hope, faith, and charity ; on the 
objects in short to be effected, they exhaust all 
their feelings and eloquence. Their history, from 
the narrative of our Lord's persecutions to those 
of Paul, the abomination of the Jews, embraces 
scenes and personages which claim from the 
ordinary reader a continual effusion of sorrow, 
or wonder, or indignation. In writers who were 
friends of the parties, and adherents of the cause 
for which they did and suffered so great things, 
the absence of it is, on ordinary grounds, incom- 
prehensible. Look at the account even of the 
crucifixion. Not one burst of indignation or 
sympathy mixes with the details of the narrative. 
Stephen the first martyr is stoned, and the 
statement comprised in these few words, " they 
stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, 
Lord Jesus, receive my spiritV' The unceasing 
toil, and the various sufferings of the apostles 
k Acts vii. 59. 

g2 



84 Proofs of Inspiration. 

are slightly hinted at ; or else related in this dry, 
frigid way. " And when they had called the 
apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that 
they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and 
let them go 1 ." " And there came thither certain 
Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded 
the people, and having stoned Paul, drew him 
out of the city, supposing he had been dead. 
Howbeit, as the disciples stood round about him, 
he rose up, and came into the city ; and the next 
day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe m ." 
Had these authors no feeling ? Had their mode 
of life bereaved them of the common sympathies 
and sensibilities of human nature ? Read such 
passages as Paul's parting address to the elders 
of Miletus ; the same apostle's recommenda- 
tion of the offending member of the Corinthian 
Church to pardon ; and, more than all, the 
occasional bursts of conflicting feeling, in which 
anxious apprehension for the faith and good 
behaviour of his converts, is mixed with the 
pleasing recollection of their conversion, and the 
minister and the man are alike strongly displayed — 
and it will be plain that Christianity exercised 
1 Acts v. 40. m Acts xiv. 19, 20. 



Peculiarities in the Scripture narratives. 85 

no benumbing influence on the heart. No: their 
whole soul was occupied with one object, which 
predominated over all the means subservient to 
it, however great those means might be. In the 
storm, the pilot's eye is fixed on the headland 
which must be weathered ; in the crisis of victory 
or defeat the general sees only the position to be 
carried, and the dead and the instruments of death 
fall around him unheeded. On the salvation of 
men — on this one point, the witnesses of Christ 
and the ministers of his Spirit, expended all their 
energy of feeling and expression. All that oc- 
curred — mischance, persecution, and miracle — 
were glanced at by the eye of faith only in sub- 
serviency to this mark of the prize of their high 
calling, as working together for good, and all 
exempt from the associations which would attach 
to such events and scenes, when contemplated 
by themselves, and with the short-sightedness of 
uninspired men. Miracles were not to them 
objects of wonder, nor mischances a subject of 
sorrow and lamentation. They did all, they 
suffered all, to the glory of God. 

Still, is it possible that the natural man should 
have sustained, without one relapse, one single 



86 Proofs of Inspiration. 

deviation, a tone of feeling so much beyond man? 
Could the circumstances of these writers, over- 
poweringly impressive though they were, have 
secured them against even an occasional betrayal 
of wonder, of pity, of indignation, or of sorrow ? 
The more we reflect on the nature of the scenes 
they describe, the more forcibly will the question 
be suggested. Must not such emotions have 
arisen, on some occasions at least, in the breast 
even of men so circumstanced — men, who were 
still of like passions with Ourselves ? That the ex- 
pression of such feelings should no where appear, 
throughout the narratives of each and of all, 
does certainly seem inexplicable ; unless we admit 
a miraculous control of their authorship — unless 
we suppose them, in short, to have been, not 
merely workers and witnesses of miracles, but 
miraculously guided in their w r ritings. 

As in the case of the omissions, it should be 
observed, that this argument does not need the 
prior supposition, that the miraculous portion of 
the New-Testament-history is true. The attempt 
to describe an unreal scene of miracles would 
have led, as naturally, to highly wrought details — 
certainly to some expression of those strong 



Phraseology of the New Testament. 87 

feelings, in which it would be the writer's object 
that others should sympathise. The only reason- 
able account that can be given of authors writing 
so, is that which the official character of inspir- 
ation supplies. 



§. 10. The phraseology of the New Testament a 
proof of Inspiration. 

Another proof of the overwhelming influence 
of an impression, which nothing perhaps but a 
part borne in a scene of miracles and inspiration 
could have made, is the phraseology of the New 
Testament. 

Besides those peculiarities of style which in- 
dicate the country or the age of the authors — • 
besides the Hebraisms, Latinisms, and other 
idiomatic characteristics of time or place — there 
are phrases far more striking which are peculiar 
to these writings as Christian writings. Now this 
evangelical phraseology , these terms and phrases 
which distinguish the authors of the New Testa- 
ment from all profane authors, are, for the most 
part, obvious allusions to the historical facts of 



88 Proofs of Inspiration. 

the Christian religion. They bear witness, not 
to the age or country of the authors, but to the 
facts which gave birth to those new ideas of 
which they are the expression. More than fifty, 
perhaps more than an hundred such peculiarities 
may be instanced. For example, ' the offence of 
the cross/ ' the faith,' ' the truth,' ' justified/ 
' saved/ ' redeemed/ ' beloved/ are all phrases 
which, in the sense in which they are used by the 
New Testament writers, must have been, without 
the historical key, as unintelligible to the contem- 
porary Hellenist, as to a scholar of any subsequent 
age. They were coined, or rather stamped anew 
with their current meaning, by the continual effort 
which was made to express new truths, new ideas, 
among persons in whose minds such truths, such 
ideas, were overwhelmingly predominant. With- 
out this supposition, indeed, the strange meaning 
given to so many phrases is unintelligible and 
unaccountable. To the Christian writers, and to 
them only, these are the habitual and unpre- 
meditated expression of thoughts to which they 
were daily giving utterance. And yet, nothing- 
can be conceived more difficult to forge or feign 
than such a distortion of ordinary language, even 



Phraseology of the New Testament. 89 

by an individual — by a society it is impossible. 
Tyranny could not force it on any body of men ; 
because, however compliant they may be, they 
would be incapable of conforming merely because 
they were willing to effect the change. That 
change must be the spontaneous result of a 
poverty of expression, that poverty of expression 
the result of a new class of ideas presented to the 
mind, absorbing the attention, and demanding 
vent in language. 

The character of these evangelical phrases is 
very remarkable. Let a Christian — let an infidel 
— examine them, and the one no less than the 
other must acknowledge, that they have had their 
origin in the facts alleged to have taken place 
in the life of Christ, and in the first progress 
of his religion — nay more, that they had their 
origin principally in the events which are repre- 
sented as miraculous. Believer and infidel must 
alike admit this ; and neither, if he reflects on 
the stubborn process of forming and changing 
languages, will doubt, that they who so adopted 
these phrases, so habitually used them, must 
have believed and must have dwelt with the in- 
tense interest of sincere and thorough conviction 



90 Proofs of Inspiration. 

on the facts which gave occasion to their use. 
Christians who in a subsequent period have in- 
herited this phraseology, are by this very circum- 
stance rendered less sensible of its force as evi- 
dence. They require to be reminded, that the evan- 
gelical forms of expression which first infected the 
Hellenistic Greek of the apostles, and have since 
been transferred from thence into the languages 
of all nations which have received their testimony, 
were the result, and could only have been the 
result, of belief in the historical events narrated 
in the Gospels, accompanied with an intensity of 
interest, such as the reality of those events alone 
could have inspired. 

These Christianisms of the New Testament, do 
not, it is true, like the preceding points of evi- 
dence, prove that the authors who used them 
were either inspired , or workers of miracles. They 
only indicate that inspiration and miracle ex- 
isted, and that these writers were living and 
writing under the extraordinary influence of the 
scene. Their use therefore in the body of in- 
ternal evidence is that of an auxiliary. Some 
other proof is required, in order to fix on 
these very authors as among the number of 



Internal proof s contrasted with external. 91 

those who actually performed miracles, and were 
inspired. 



§.11. General remarks on the character of the in- 
ternal proofs contrasted with the external. 

In the preceding review of the internal evi- 
dences of inspiration, I have more than once 
adverted to the fact, that this kind of proof is 
not equally convincing, equally proof to all. It 
depends for its impression, much more than the 
external, on the character of the inquirer. ' The 
reason appears to be this. External proof, 
although often removed to too great a distance 
to be accurately surveyed — although often too 
extensive also to be taken in at one glance — is 
always exhibited in distinct, well-defined masses. 
Internal proof, on the contrary, lies indeed at our 
feet, as it were, and admits of close examination, 
but always appears as a compound. Sometimes 
(as, for example, in the case of the New Testament 
phraseology) its affinity is for some other kind 
of evidence ; more frequently (as in the instances 
of prophecy fulfilled, and the Gospel morality) 



92 Proofs of Inspiration. 

for that which is not itself proof, but necessary 
to it. There are certain plants which cannot 
display their natural character, unless they entwine 
round others for support ; and chemical combin- 
ations are requisite to enable certain substances , 
again, to exhibit their most striking properties. 
Something like this takes place with internal proofs; 
and the attendant circumstances essential to them 
are often for this reason themselves called proofs. 
The estimate we form of the morality of the 
Gospel as evidence, depends, for example, on 
the view we take of man's intellectual powers — 
of the character, age, and country of the indi- 
viduals who wrote Scripture — of the contemporary 
progress of ethical knowledge elsewhere. Pro- 
phecy fulfilled, again, is, in like manner, stronger 
or weaker evidence, according as our knowledge 
of the events is accurate, our impressions 
vivid, and our susceptibility of such impressions 
easily excited ; and so much that is purely 
historical research is sometimes involved in the 
question of its fulfilment, as to deter minds, not 
naturally constituted or trained by education for 
it, from attempting to do more than enough to 
secure an indolent assent. 



Internal proofs contrasted with external. 93 

If, however, this sort of evidence, like gold in 
the ore, is apt to escape the heedless or un- 
practised observer, because of the foreign matter 
with which it is always found mixed ; a combina- 
tion of one kind of evidence with another — of 
internal with external, and of each with each — 
contributes, and is indeed indispensable, to a just 
estimate of the point to be established. The 
inquirer into the truth of Scriptural inspiration, 
should place before his mind, not only the sepa- 
rate result of any one process of proof, but the 
combined result of all. Let him ask himself, not 
only is this or that prophecy fulfilled ? is this or 
that fact incompatible with mere human author- 
ship ? and is the author, therefore, inspired ? Let 
him ask himself — is it conceivable, that these 
writers should appeal to eye-witnesses of miracles 
attesting their inspiration — should foretell the 
future — inculcate lessons of morality purer and 
more sublime than philosophy ever taught— 
exhibit so many other marvellous characteristics 
— -should do all this, and be, all the while, writing 
not under the influence of inspiration? 

Lastly, he should look around him, and inquire, 
whether any writings in the world, that claim 
supernatural interference in their authorship, have 



94 Proofs of Inspiration. 

had that hind of proof which the Scriptures have, 
and which is requisite, and alone sufficient, to 
establish such a claim. Let him inquire respect- 
ing the Koran and the Popish legends. In both, 
and in all other instances, it will be found, that 
if sensible miracles are appealed to, it is the 
authority of the document that supports the credit 
of the alleged miracles, not the miracles that 
prove the inspiration of the document. So like- 
wise, in the case of pretenders to sensible personal 
communion with God, and to his extraordinary 
interference, no testimonial miracles have ever 
been adduced, corresponding to those performed 
by God's servants of old. 

That either a new generation of inspired 
persons should arise ; or that additions should be 
made to the present canon of Scripture by any 
fresh interposition of Providence, are anticipations 
certainly not inconceivable; but as certainly not 
warranted by any promise contained in holy 
writ — and I should say, at variance with the 
perfect and finished character of the Christian 
dispensation n . At all events, let us admit neither 

" I have stated my reasons for this view more fully in 
my History of the Rise and Early Progress of Christianity, 
vol.ii. p. 73. 



Internal proof s contrasted with external. 95 

an inspiration of persons nor of writings — by 
whatever name it may be called — until such cre- 
dentials as God vouchsafed to his former mes- 
sengers, and the recorders of his word, and 
which alone are admissible, be again presented 
to his Church and to the world. Let us take 
heed to the prophecy which warns the Church, 
that in the latter times there shall be false pro- 
phets and seducing spirits ; and, not least, let us 
take heed, that we be not ourselves in that num- 
ber. To deceive one's self, is quite as likely a 
case as to be deceived by another ; and probably 
no religious impostor ever existed, who did not 
either begin or end by imposing on himself. 



PART II. 

THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF INSPIRATION, 



J. 1. General remarks. 

iHE term inspired, in its widest extent of 
signification, may be applied to all who have 
been miraculously enabled, either to receive a 
divine revelation, or to execute a divine com- 
mission. Not that some of God's servants were 
inspired for one of these purposes, and some for 
the other. Those who received revelations, were 
called on to perform some holy service in con- 
sequence, and such service could only, of course, 
have been enjoined by means of a revelation. 

In what consisted the miraculous qualification 
either for receiving a revelation, or for executing 
a divine commission, and also under what limit- 
ation it was granted; are questions, which we 
have no right to decide by mere conjecture, nor 

H 



98 The nature and extent of Inspiration. 

indeed, in any other way, than by examining the 
facts and assertions contained in the only au- 
thentic record of inspired persons — the Bible. 
Once satisfied by the appropriate evidence, that 
a human being is inspired, we should be bound to 
take his own word for the nature and extent of his 
inspiration. Our obligation with regard to the 
Scriptures is the same. If the proofs of their 
inspiration have satisfied us, to the Scriptures 
themselves we must go — on the Scriptures alone 
we must depend, for the nature and extent of 
their inspiration, as well as of the inspiration of 
those whose holy agency and revelations they 
record. 

Such an inquiry as this will comprehend, 
I. The different modes of revelation for receiving 
which men have been inspired. II. The different 
kinds of divine agency, or the different purposes for 
which men have received revelations and inspir- 
ation. III. The nature and extent of the inspir- 
ation, i. e. of the miraculous qualification, both for 
receiving a revelation, and also for fulfilling the 
course of duty arising out of it. This last, the 
personal endowment and qualification, is, it should 
be observed, strictly speaking, the inspiration; for, 



Different modes of revelation. 99 

the extraordinary knowledge imparted by God, 
as well as the act of imparting it, we more pro- 
perly call revelation'". 



§.2. The different modes of revelation for receiving 
which men have been inspired. 

The various forms of divine communication to 
mankind, which have required or implied inspir- 
ation, may be comprised under the general descrip- 
tion of Visions, Voices, Dreams, and instinctive 
Impulses. There is, it is true, reason to infer 
from Scripture, that there may have been one 
other method, as will be presently noticed ; but 
these are all of which Scripture gives any definite 



a One of the objections brought by infidels against reve- 
lation, turns on this ambiguity of the term. A revelation, say 
they, can be only such to those who actually and immediately 
receive it from heaven. St. Paul's revelations, for instance, 
may have been revelations to him, but cannot be so to others. 
Now this is true of revelation, in one sense of the word; if, 
namely, we mean by it the act of revealing. But it is clearly 
not true, if we mean by it the communication itself — the 
knowledge revealed. 

H 2 



100 The nature and extent of Inspiration. 

account. Indeed, no other mode of divine com- 
munication is perhaps intelligible to an unin- 
spired person, except that wherein the mediation 
of a distinct being is interposed ; and this does 
not imply or require any inspiration of the 
person who should so receive a revelation. 
Our Lord's hearers, for example, had revela- 
tions addressed to them through Him ; but this 
did not require or cause them to be inspired. 
The same was the case with the holy messages 
conveyed to the patriarchs by angels in the form 
of men. In all such instances, the persons ad- 
dressed, would not necessarily be otherwise af- 
fected, than if a mere inspired man, like them- 
selves, were announcing a revelation, for the 
receiving of which he, not they, had been in- 
spired. 

By the term Visions, is meant any communi- 
cations conveyed through an object of sight. Of 
this kind were, the hand-writing on the wall of 
Belshazzar's banquet room, the pillar of fire and 
cloud which guided the Israelites through the 
wilderness, and the like\ 

b Daniel v. 5. ?: X odus xiii. 21, 22. 



The different modes of revelation. 101 

Voices. — This term is intended to signify all 
revelations conveyed through the sense of hearing. 
These were often accompanied with extraordi- 
nary impressions on the other senses ; and were 
probably the most frequent, because they were the 
most distinct mode of communication. Such 
was the giving of the Ten Commandments, the 
call of Moses, and perhaps all those revelations 
designated simply by the expression, " The Lord 
said unto him c ." 

Dreams. — Under this title I would include 
whatever was addressed to the imagination only ; 
whether the abstraction from a consciousness of 
surrounding objects was the effect of sleep, or of 
some supernatural influence. As instances of 
this class may be mentioned, Peter's vision of the 
sheet, Jacob's dream, and the like l! . 

Instinctive impulses. — This term is used to de- 
note some method of making known the divine 
will, which does not appear to have been an 
address either to the senses or to the imagination, 
but to have operated on the desires, affections, 

c Exodus iii. 4. xx. 1. Genesis xvii. 
d Acts x. 10. Genesis xxviii. 12. 



102 The nature and extent of Inspiration. 

and inclinations, as those other communications 
did on the senses or the imagination. Its 
use, therefore, could not have been to impart 
an original revelation, but supposes one already 
given . 

§.3. The nature and extent of supernatural quali- 
fications for receiving a revelation. 

The first remark suggested by a review of 
the various kinds of revelation is, that, in all, the 
senses and the imagination appear to have been 
affected only as in the ordinary course of nature — 
that the exercise of sight, of hearing, and of 
fancy, was, it would seem, in every case, of the 
same kind as that produced by natural objects, 
natural sounds, and natural sleep. Thus Samuel 
is described as mistaking the voice of God for 
that of Eli e ; and another, more experienced, as 
desiring to be certified by a sign, that the impres- 
sion was supernatural, and being gratified in his 
desire as reasonable f . 

This being so, it follows, (as was remarked 
under the head of Proofs,) that, besides the vehicle 

e 1 Sam. iii. f Judges vi. 17. 



Qualifications for receiving a revelation. 103 

of communication, whether voice, vision, or dream, 
some sign of confirmation must always have been 
provided, in order to satisfy the person visited, 
that he was neither imposed on, nor imposing on 
himself— imposed on, as in the case of " lying 
spirits," of human contrivances, or of accidental 
phenomena ; imposing on himself, as in the 
case of enthusiasm. Not that in all or in most 
instances any record will be found of the sign of 
confirmation : partly, perhaps, because the revela- 
tion alone concerned those to whom the records 
of the event are addressed— the sign, the persons 
visited. Still it is in many instances mentioned. 
In some indeed it was unavoidable ; whenever, 
namely, the same display served the double 
purpose of confirming sign and vehicle of com- 
munication, as in the case of the hand-writing 
addressed to Belshazzar". In some cases, again, 
the two are connected together, so as to form 
what may be called in loose phrase one revelation. 
Of this kind was that which occurred at St. 
Paul's conversion 11 . The voice alone was the 
medium of communication; while the light served 

« Dan. v. 5. " Acts ix. 3—5. 



104 The nature and extent of Inspiration. 

to certify that it proceeded from no human lips ? . 
The same may be observed of the call of Moses 
at the bush h . Sometimes also the two were so 
joined, as that the sign should not become proof 
until afterwards ; it being in this case a sort of 
prophetic appendage. Of this kind was Zacharias's 
revelation respecting John the Baptist, that of 
Cornelius concerning his own admission into the 
Church, and the like \ The last case is where 
the two were disjoined ; and then the confirmation 
was effected either by some distinct revelation, or 
by a specific miracle. Thus the budding of Aaron's 
rod was a sign of confirmation to Aaron, and 
the miracle of the fleece to Gideon k . Thus, too, 
the power of working miracles, granted in all 
ages to the messengers of God, were signs not 
only to those to whom they were sent, but to 
themselves also, that they were really so com- 
missioned. 

s It is often asserted, that St. Paul then saw the Lord. 
But this could not have been the case. He was immediately 
struck blind, and the manifestation of Christ, of which he 
speaks, took place subsequently in the Temple at Jerusalem. 

h Exod. iii. 2, 4. ' Luke i. 1 1 . Acts x. 

k Numb. xvii. 8. Judges vi. 37—40. 



Qualifications for receiving a revelation. 105 

It is probable, that for those who were in the 
habit of receiving frequent communications, a 
miracle in every case might not have been 
requisite. For, although it is true, that these 
modes of addressing the senses or imagination were 
apparently the same as if ordinary and natural 
causes were operating ; still, the eye, the ear, or 
the mind, w r ould become familiarized to these, as 
to any other sounds, sights, or even dreams. 
The experience of many may be appealed to, for 
the fact, that dreams do recur, and are remem- 
bered as repetitions of former dreams. Now, a 
dream ascertained to be divine, might have had 
some characteristic, which, when recognized in 
other subsequent dreams, might have served to 
indicate their divine origin. Thus, when Samuel 
is represented, (in the instance already noticed,) 
as ignorant of the nature of the heavenly call, 
the expression of Scripture is, that "he did not 
yet know the Lord m -" the natural interpretation 
of which seems to be, that he had not yet 
become acquainted with the voice by experience. 
In like manner, Adam is said to have " known" 

m 1 8am. iii. 7. 



1 06 The nature and extent of Inspiration. 

or recognised the voice of the Lord God walking 
in the garden". That, even in these cases, 
it might have been sometimes the duty of the 
inspired to wait for a confirming sign — suppose 
such only as the instinctive impulse — and that 
for neglecting to do so they might have been 
sometimes misled, as in the case of Balaam, is 
not improbable °. 

Again, although the eye or ear was opened to 
impressions, which would seem to have been of 
themselves undistinguishable from natural sounds 
and sights, it does not follow that the import of 
these sounds and sights was always intelligible 
to unassisted and uninspired men. Some mira- 
culous assistance — some inspiration of power to 
understand the meaning of the voice or vision or 
dream, must occasionally have been needed and 
given. Instances are recorded too, in which the 
revelation was given to one, the interpreting 
faculty, or inspiration for understanding its im- 
port, to another. Joseph, for example, was in- 
spired to understand the meaning of miraculous 
dreams which Pharaoh had, and Daniel for inter- 
preting those of the Babylonish king. Peter's 

" Genesis iii. 8, 10. " Numbers xxii. 20, et seq. 



Qualifications for receiving a revelation. 107 

vision of the clean and unclean animals, is an 
instance, in which the miraculous power of un- 
derstanding a symbolical vision, was withheld, 
and instead of it the explanation brought about 
through a separate revelation connected with it. 
The meaning of the apostle's dream would seem 
to have been suggested to him by the voice 
calling on him to "go with the men, doubting 
nothing ." 

Besides these forms of revelation which holy 
writ enables us to describe, and which have accord- 
ingly formed the subject of inquiry thus far, there 
would seem to have been some, which required a 
faculty of perception, such as is not called into 
exercise in our present state of being, and by the 
phenomena of the world in which we now live. 
On no other supposition, perhaps, can we under- 
stand, how St. Paul should be incapable of ex- 
plaining to others the kind of revelation, which 
he represents himself as once receiving. He 
describes himself as uncertain, whether he was 
in the body or out of the body ; and applies to 
the divine communion he so experienced the epi- 
thet "unspeakable 1 '." That the mind may receive 

" Acts x. 20. p 2 Cor. xii. 1—4. 



108 The nature and extent of Inspiration. 

impressions, even without the intervention of 
miracle, which can only be described by faint 
analogies, is a fact which the experience of many 
can testify, and may render such a state as Paul's 
conceivable. Many persons, for example, after 
inhaling the nitrous oxide that produces such a 
singular state of ecstasy, vividly recollect the 
strange scene of delusion, and yet declare, that it 
cannot be represented by any known impression 
on the senses, or by any pictures of the ima- 
gination. The dreams of an invalid, whose nerves 
have been long and habitually disordered, furnish 
often an illustration of the same kind ''. 

The usual form of revelation seems, however, 
to have been some address Jto the senses, and the 
usual qualification no more than what is implied 
in the privilege of perceiving it, in the assurance of 



'' The sublimity of description produced by this very vague- 
ness, in " the Confessions of an opium eater," will occur to 
many of my readers. It will be understood, of course, that I 
am not asserting or supposing St. Paul's inspiration to have been 
a state of mind bearing any direct resemblance to these cases; 
but, as being analogous to them in one respect ; viz. that in 
both, the impression was vividly remembered, but incapable 
still of being accurately described to another. 



Qualifications concerning a revelation. 109 

a confirming sign, and in the power (if needed) of 
miraculously understanding the meaning of any 
symbol or other mysterious form of expression, 
adopted by divine Wisdom. 

The style and structure of the prophetical 
books of the Bible indicate this ; and furnish 
the best illustration of the view which we have 
been taking. The prophets tell us of certain 
symbolical scenes which were exhibited to them ; 
and these statements are, doubtless, intended to 
be literally understood. Their works may, ac- 
cordingly, be characterized as long picture-rolls, 
in which the mysterious engraver has occasionally 
introduced among his figures notes and explana- 
tions of the design. What to himself was dark, 
or what he was forbidden to interpret, he left 
solely in the hieroglyphic form, which had been 
the vehicle of divine communication to him ; 
whilst the other images have their meaning writ- 
ten, as it were, underneath q . Hence the perpetual 



q See, e. g. Daniel's vision of the four beasts, ch. vii. The 
former part of the chapter to v. 15, contains a picture of the 
vision ; the remainder is the comment or explanation. See 
also Jeremiah, ch. xxiv. Ezekiel xxxvii. &c. 



110 The nature and extent of Inspiration. 

interchange of what is called the poetical style of 
prophecy, (but which oftener, perhaps, is the 
imagery of the original vision,) and of the prophet's 
plain unadorned language of comment or exhort- 
ation. Hence too certain common characteristics 
of style, and even sameness of matter, which 
exist between these holy authors, however dis- 
tinguished in other points, and however far re- 
moved from each other by the periods in which 
they wrote. The close coincidence, for example, 
between some passages of the book of Revelations 
and of the writings of the older prophets, would 
according to this view imply, not that St. John 
copied from the former inspired books, but that 
the old visions were repeated to him, for the 
purpose of qualifying him to explain them now 
more fully than was done before — or, rather, to 
explain some, and to leave others in the form best 
calculated for being explained by the successive 
events as they should take place. 

The preceding view of the manner in which 
the servants of the Most High were qualified for 
receiving a revelation, will in some measure have 
anticipated the inquiry into the extent of that 



I 



Qualifications for receiving a revelation. Ill 

qualification. The privilege of knowing the mind 
of the Lord, appears to have been in all instances 
limited to the particular revelation, out of which 
the agency of the inspired arose. We have no 
indication of a more general insight being 
granted to any. Much less can we presume that 
any mere man — that the angels which are in 
heaven — ever had their faculties so enlightened, 
as to perceive all the Lord's counsels, even all 
respecting man. To some more revelations 
were given than to others ; but the very fact of 
their frequent occurrence to the same individual, 
shew T s that there was no cleansing of the mortal 
vision once for all — no inspiration which qua- 
lified the mind to take in all of the secret and 
the future, and to know all mysteries. The 
apostle who boasts of receiving revelation's in- 
ferior to those of none other who was inspired, 
includes himself under the general assertion of 
knowing in part, and prophesying in part*. 

r 1 Cor. xiii. 9. It is worthy of notice, in reference to this 
fact, that the knowledge of the divine will claimed by each 
successive pope, far exceeds that of his pretended predecessor 
St. Peter. Well may prophecy, therefore, represent him — 
not as a false apostle — not as usurping the apostolical seat — 



112 The nature and extent of Inspiration. 

It may be presumed, indeed, that even this 
privilege of receiving a revelation was not always 
accompanied with a power of comprehending its 
import — certainly not of comprehending its full 
import 5 . Many of the shadowy prophecies, which 
foreshewed Christ and his Gospel kingdom, were, 
probably, as little understood by the prophet as 
by the people. They were designed as an embryo 
form of revelation, to be deposited in the old 
Scriptures, but not to assume their ultimate 
character and signification, until the fulness of 
the time. A general surmise of promises not 
transitory, of a Saviour from sin as well as from 
sorrow, from enemies spiritual as well as tem- 

but as one who " as God sitteth in the temple of God, shew- 
ing himself that he is God." 2 Thess. ii. 4. 

8 When Caiaphas declared, that it was expedient that one 
man should die for the people, that the whole nation might 
not perish, he appears, not only to have misapplied a prophecy 
which he was uttering, but to have been unconscious that he 
was prophesying. See John xi. 49 — 53. Was this the case 
with the words uttered by the governor of the feast, when our 
Lord turned water into wine? " thou hast kept the good 
wine until now." John ii. 10. They certainly seem to in- 
dicate an allusion to the change of dispensation which was 
then taking place. 



Qualifications for receiving a revelation. 113 

poral — this was all that was needed for the con- 
temporaries of the prophet, and for the prophet 
himself, and was all, possibly, that he generally 
understood of his own dark visions. " Unto 
them," writes St. Peter to the Church, " it was 
revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us 
they did minister the things which are now re- 
ported unto you, by them that have preached the 
Gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down 
from heaven ; which things the angels desire to 
look into s . " Some, doubtless, like Abraham, 
beheld the day of Christ with more clearness of 
prophetic vision than others ; but the least of the 
kingdom of heaven, when it was come, was, in 
this respect, a greater prophet — knew more of 
the mind of the Lord — than the greatest of them 
of old. 

It is impossible, for a reflecting mind, not to 
contrast the Scriptural account of the Lord Jesus, 
with this view of a strict limitation of the pro- 
phetic spirit in all God's other messengers, from 

s 1 Peter i. 12. The original word (Tret^ctKv^/eci) implies an 
intense anxiety to ascertain the nature of some object — it 
means literally, to stoop down in order to examine. 

I 



114 The nature and extent of Inspiration. 

the patriarchs unto the apostles. " All things" 
(it is his own representation of himself when 
speaking of the divine secrets) " are delivered 
unto me of my Father : and no man knoweth 
the Son, but the Father ; neither knoweth 
any man the Father, save the Son, and he to 
whomsoever the Son will reveal him*."' Is anv 
ready to reply, as did the Jews of old, " Thou 
bearest record of thyself, thy record is not true ?" 
His words to us, as to them, are, " I am one that 
beareth witness of myself, and the Father that 
sent me beareth witness of me u ." Think of the 
various kinds of evidence by which he bore 
witness of himself — by which he proved that what- 
ever he asserted God must have sanctioned. 
Think of the miracles he wrought, the prophe- 
cies he fulfilled, the life he lived, and the death 
he died. Think on the confirmation of his truth 
by the establishment of Christianity, and by its 
wonderful results to this day on the world. Think, 
if you have ever experienced it, on the power of 
his Holy Spirit to help you in an hour of trial 
and distress. But, perhaps, he may seem to 

1 Matt. xi. 27. Luke x. 22. " John viii. 13—18. 



Qualifications for receiving a revelation. 1 1 5 

have been asserting only a larger share, than be- 
longed to other inspired persons of this Holy- 
Light. Is this the obvious import of his 
words? Not so did St. Paul understand them, 
when he spoke of " the mind of Christ y ," as the 
source of all his revealed knowledge — the height 
and depth which his unsealed eye was permitted 
to search. Not such was the interpretation of 
another apostle — one who was doubtless present 
when the words fell from his Master's lips. St. 
Peter speaks of the Old Testament prophets, as 
St. Paul does of the New, describing them as em- 
ployed in ' ' searching what or what manner of time 
the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, 
when it testified beforehand the sufferings of 
Christ, and the glory that should follow 7 . " Must 
we not rather, adopting the language of inspira- 
tion, say of patriarchs, and prophets, and apostles, 
" Were they not all ministering spirits, sent forth 
to minister for them who shall be heirs of salva- 
tion a ?" But of the Son, " Thy throne, O God, 
is for ever and ever h ." 

y 1 Cor. ii. 16. z 1 Peter i. 11. 

a Heb. i. 14. b Heb. i. 8. and Psalm xlv. 6. 



i 2 



116 The nature and extent of Inspiration. 



§.4. The different purposes for accomplishing which 
men have been inspired. 

The agency for which the Almighty inspired 
his servants in his progressive scheme of revela- 
tion and guidance is so various, and often of so 
mixed a character, as to make it difficult to 
arrange it under any specific heads which would 
exhaust the subject. Our object will, however, 
be sufficiently attained, by bringing under review 
the more prominent of these inspired agents, and 
examining the nature of their respective com- 
missions. Moses, the Judges and Kings of 
Israel, the Prophets, and the Apostles, are those 
whose agency will be considered for this purpose. 

Moses was divinely commissioned and inspired 
to negociate with Pharaoh the removal of the 
Israelites from Egypt, and to superintend their 
escape — to give them a religious law — to give 
them a civil polity — to act the delegated part of 
chief magistrate ; and to superintend the observ- 
ance, both of their civil and of their religious 
co d e — to prepare, instruct, and train them for 



Purposes for which men have been inspired. 1 17 

taking possession of the promised land — to pro- 
phesy — to write Scripture. 

The judges and kings of Israel. — Their agency 
embraced generally the vicegerency in God's 
government of his people, of which the main 
principle was the worship of Jehovah according 
to his revealed will, and the suppression of idol- 
atry — in peace, the administration of justice, and 
preservation of social order — in war, the conduct 
of armies, and the performance of particular 
exploits — the building, honouring, and preserving 
the Temple — and (besides minor points which 
need not be enumerated) in some instances, pro- 
phecy ; and in some too, Scripture. 

The prophets were commissioned and inspired 
to enlarge gradually the field of revelation — to 
convey particular instructions to the Israelites, 
and in some instances to others — to predict 
future events — and, some of them, to write 
Scripture. 

The apostles and their coadjutors were or- 
dained and qualified by the Spirit — to bear testi- 
mony to a series of historical facts embraced in 
the ministry of Jesus, and in the subsequent 
dispensation of the Spirit — to explain the import 



] 18 The nature and extent of Inspiration. 

and object of these events, or, in other words, 
the doctrines arising out of them — to found, 
govern, and instruct the Christian societies — to 
predict future events — in some instances, to write 
Scripture. 

Of these commissions, some were general and 
permanent — what in human affairs might be called, 
standing commissions — as, for example, the inspir- 
ation and appointment of the apostles to preach 
the Gospel, and of Moses, to conduct the Israel- 
ites from Egypt through the wilderness. In 
other instances, inspiration was given, with a 
view to some single act, without implying any 
permanently inspired character. The inspiration 
of Elisabeth for the salutation of Mary is an 
illustration of this kind of inspired appointment. 

Sometimes, again, those inspired for a general 
course of duty, although qualified for their regular 
services, appear to have required, in certain 
cases, a special direction or help from God. Of 
this, we have an instance, in the particular in- 
structions given from time to time to Moses, after 
he had been appointed the leader of the Israelites, 
and had been divinely qualified for his office. 
The inspired agent was thus kept in mind of his 



Purposes for which men have been inspired. 119 

own natural weakness, insufficiency, and depend- 
ence on his divine Master, which the habitual 
exercise of extraordinary power and talent must 
have often tempted him to forget*. 

Sometimes, lastly, the Almighty so far sus- 
pended or superseded the delegated agency of 
these his ministers, as to manifest his own un- 
delegated agency instead of theirs ; as, for ex- 
ample, in the delivery of the Ten Commandments 
from mount Sinai. One object of this too might 
have been, to remind both the inspired and those 
to w T hom they ministered, that all the power and 
authority was really Jehovah's, although gene- 
rally displayed through the instrumentality of 
human agents. 

There are portions of the Bible w T hich must 
have been written under a general commission, 
and others from special instruction. The pre- 
dictive parts of the prophetical books must have 
been the result of positive and particular direc- 
tions ; the history, on the other hand, and the 
apostolical epistles, may be more properly, per- 
haps, classed among the ordinary acts of an 

a St. Paul discovers to us his consciousness of such a 
danger. See 2 Cor. xii. 



120 The nature and extent of Inspiration. 

extraordinary agency — that is, the general in- 
spiration to write — the general commission and 
qualification were given ; the details of their duty 
left, to a certain extent, to their own choice. 

It will be observed, that in enumerating the 
principal kinds of inspired agency, no mention 
has been made of the performance of miracles. 
The reason is this. Although inspired agency 
is, of course, miraculous, yet in its object, and in 
its miraculous character too, it differs essentially 
from miracles properly so called. The worker of 
a miracle must, doubtless, have been instructed 
by inspiration, as to the time and circumstances 
of his calling in this divine interposition ; but the 
characterising point is, that the ultimate purpose of 
the miracle was always to attest the inspiration, 
not of the inspiration to effect the display of 
miracles. In other words, inspiration was super- 
natural assistance , miracles supernatural proof. 
In the gifts of inspiration, accordingly, the results 
naturally followed from a cause miraculously 
given ; in the performance of miracles, properly 
so called, there was no natural connection 
between the apparent cause and the effect ; the 
absence of this being the important circum- 



Purposes for which men have been inspired. 121 

stance for proof. When Paul, for example, 
exercised his inspired wisdom, or knowledge, his 
eloquence, or his power of interpreting a foreign 
language, the result was, in each case, such, as 
would have followed, if by ordinary means he 
had acquired these intellectual endowments. 
When, on the other hand, he healed the sick, or 
raised the dead, there was no natural connection 
between any form which he used for these pur- 
poses and the result ; for proof of divine interpo- 
sition it was requisite that there should be none. 
Paul was then merely the formal or ceremonial 
instrument — the officiating minister in a cere- 
mony attached to the divine interference and 
manifestation. 

It does not follow from this, that none of the 
gifts of the Spirit served the purpose of mira- 
culous proof, as well as of assistance ; but the 
distinction, nevertheless, holds good in respect of 
these ; and they assume a different character 
according as they are viewed under this or that 
aspect. The diffused gift of languages on the day 
of Pentecost was a testimonial miracle, because it 
was a result for which there was no natural cause; 
but this acquirement of a foreign tongue, by any 



122 The nature and extent of Inspiration. 

one of the individuals present, would not be 
afterwards recognised as miraculous, merely by the 
use of that language. This would appear only 
like the regular result of such an acquirement, 
however obtained. 

This essential character of a miracle, as an 
interposition of God, in which the worker was 
only the performer of the ceremony attached to 
it, is important in one point of view, which 
deserves our notice. It can hardly be doubted 
by one who attentively reads the Gospel history, 
that our Lord on some occasions studiously 
represented the performance of miracles by him- 
self, as a case differing from this — as if he, in 
short, were himself the divine interposer. Take, 
for example, his cure of the child possessed by a 
dumb spirit, as related in St. Mark's Gospel \ 
where he is represented as performing the miracle 
without prayer and fasting; and yet accounting 
for the failure of his apostles in their attempt to 
do so by the assertion, " this kind can come 
forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting." The 
same may be observed of the emphatic way in 
which he called Lazarus from the tomb, and bade 
h Chap. ix. 14 — 29. also in Matthew xvii. 14 — 21. 



Purposes for which men have been inspired. 123 

the widow of Nain's son awake to life, " Lazarus, 
come forth." "Young man, I say unto thee, Arise." 
His design is the more apparent too, if we con- 
trast with his words the opposite disavowal of the 
apostles, such as is exhibited in the language 
of Peter when he healed a man of the palsy, 
" iEneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole c :" and 
again, when with John he healed the lame 
man at the Beautiful gate of the Temple, " Ye 
men of Israel, why marvel ye at this ? or why 
look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own 
power or holiness we had made this man to walk? 
The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, 
the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son 
Jesus ; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in 
the presence of Pilate, when he was determined 
to let him go. But ye denied the Holy One and 
the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted 
unto you ; and killed the Prince of life, whom 
God hath raised from the dead ; whereof we are 
witnesses. And his name, through faith in his 

c Acts ix. 34. In the miracle of raising Tabitha, the same 
acknowledgment was implied by his first kneeling down and 
praying. See ver. 40, of the same chapter. 



124 The nature and extent of Inspiration. 

name, hath made this man strong, whom ye see 
and know ; yea, the faith which is by him hath 
given him this perfect soundness in the presence 
of you all d ." The more we study the inspired 
character of God's various messengers to man- 
kind, the more irresistible is the impression, that 
Jesus alone was not a mere inspired man, but 
" God manifest in the flesh 6 ." 



§. 5. The nature and extent of supernatural quali- 
fications for each different purpose. 

The miraculous qualification of an inspired 
agent of the Almighty must, it is plain, have 
varied greatly, not only according to the character 
of the revelations he received, but still more ac- 
cording to the kind of service in which he was 
to be engaged. The recorder of events must 
have required a different Spiritual preparation 
from the legislator or the warrior ; and the legis- 
lator or warrior again must have received powers 
and capacities totally distinct from those con- 
ferred on one whose office was to instruct foreigners 
of various languages in the divine messages. 
A Acts iii. 12—16. e 1 Timothy iii. 16. 



Qualifications for different offices. 125 

There must have been a different class of intel- 
lectual faculties enlightened, when the servant of 
the Most High was appointed to unfold the mystic 
roll of prophecy, and when his sacred errand was 
to bear testimony to facts which were matters of 
ordinary observation and comprehension. 

The wide difference between the various kinds 
of inspired agency would oblige us to take this 
view of a corresponding variety in the nature and 
extent of inspiration, supposing there were no 
express Scriptural assertions of the fact. But 
Scripture is not silent on the subject. Inspir- 
ation is spoken of by inspired authors themselves, 
as given severally and not collectively ; the single 
exception being that of him, who only " took on 
him the form of a servant." To Christ alone, 
who was God as well as man, the Father gave 
not the Spirit " by measure f ," (or partially;) in 
the case of all others, there has been a measure — 
a grace sufficient for them and their agency. 
" The manifestation of the Spirit/ ' writes St. 
Paul, " is given to every man to profit withal. 
For to one is given, by the Spirit, the word of 
wisdom ; to another the word of knowledge, by 

f John iii. 34. 



126 The nature and extent of Inspiration. 

the same Spirit ; to another faith, by the same 
Spirit ; to another the gifts of healing, by the 
same Spirit ; to another the working of miracles ; 
to another prophecy ; to another discerning of 
spirits ; to another divers kinds of tongues ; to 
another the interpretation of tongues : but all 
these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, 
dividing to every man severally as he will f :" and 
again; " God hath set some in the Church ; first, 
apostles; secondarily, prophets; thirdly, teachers; 
after that, miracles ; then gifts of healings, helps, 
governments, diversities of tongues. Are all 
apostles ? are all prophets ? are all teachers ? are 
all workers of miracles ? have all the gifts of 
healing ? do all speak with tongues ? do all 
interpret??" 

Reason and Scripture lead us further to re- 
cognise, besides these various inspired qualifi- 
cations, a distinct divine superintendence ; the 
object of which was, to supply any occasional 
deficiency in those qualifications ; or, I should 
rather say perhaps, to prevent any defective or 
improper application of them. The reasonable- 
ness of this additional provision rests on the 

f 1 Corinth, xii. 7—11. « Ibid. ver. 28—30. 



Miraculous improvement of natural powers. 127 

fallibility of the human agents who were en- 
trusted with inspired powers, but still left (as 
will appear) free agents, and responsible for the 
use of them ; and the actual existence of such a 
provision, is proved by the record of instances in 
which it was manifested. 

These two kinds of inspiration or divine help, 
by means of which the servants of God accom- 
plished each his proper agency, will require to be 
considered separately. I will begin with the 
miraculous improvement of the natural powers of 
the agent. 



§. 6. Miraculous improvement of the natural powers. 

Of the exact extent of this kind of inspiration 
in any given case, it is impossible for us to be 
certain. Its results appearing only like the re- 
sults of human wisdom and human power, no 
one can say how much was, in any given instance, 
originally apportioned by God to the individual 
in his natural condition, and how much was 
supernatural improvement. Unless we could 
exactly ascertain, for example, how much natural 



128 The nature and extent of Inspiration. 

talent and mere human acquirement Moses had 
before his appointment, and how much more was 
needed for the apparent result of talent and 
wisdom in the discharge of his sacred duties, we 
cannot tell how far inspiration was operating in 
his case. To estimate how much of PauPs 
eloquence was the result of spiritual assistance, 
we must first know what Paul's naturally acquired 
eloquence was. Nor is it needful that the line 
should be more exactly drawn. It is sufficient to 
know that God's purpose was fulfilled ; and 
whether much or little, or no improvement of the 
natural powers of the agent was needed, can make 
no difference in the character of the ministry — 
that is, if we admit a superintendence of the Holy 
Spirit, sanctioning all, and pronouncing that all 
was good. 

It would seem, however, that Providence has, 
in general, so chosen his natural agents, as to 
direct the attention of mankind to the fact of 
divine interposition and a miraculous improve- 
ment of their original powers. Moses was the 
meekest of men ; and yet he it was, who was 
chosen to govern a people prone to discontent 
and rebellion, and to conduct them in the most ad- 



Miraculous improvement of natural powers. 129 

venturous and hardy enterprise on the page of 
history. The inference designed to be drawn is 
plain — that it was God who had inspired him 
with the boldness and hardihood requisite for the 
purpose. He was, on the other hand, instructed 
by ordinary means in " all the learning of the 
Egyptians" — of that people which furnished the 
ancient world with legislative wisdom ; and yet, 
no one agent of the Almighty is represented as 
being left so little to the use of his own original 
wisdom and knowledge. There was scarce one 
measure of importance in his whole government 
and guidance of the Israelites, but a special 
revelation instructed him in it. Can we be blind 
to the meaning of such a fact, and to the object 
for which it is recorded ? Surely it is God re- 
minding us, that he does not give his glory to 
another. So, again, the apostles were selected 
from a low and unlettered class of society, to be 
the opponents of the wise and the rich and the 
powerful. Paul is perhaps the only exception 
among those whose writings we have ; and he an 
exception only as far as regards learning. And 
what is the tone of his language respecting him- 
self ? Is he not on every occasion obtruding on 

K 



130 The nature and extent of Inspiration. 

us the important fact, that his success was ef- 
fected, not by that learning, but by the power of 
God manifested through him in miracles and 
miraculous gifts f ? 

In other instances, disinterested generosity, 
magnanimity, or some other rare or noble quality, 
is displayed in such bold relief, as to constitute 
a marked deviation from the general character of 
human nature, and to force on us the suggestion 
of immediate divine influence. An ancient moral- 
ist has designated this view of character by the 
term Heroic", as if to denote, that it exists only 
in an age of imagination and fiction ; and we still 
apply to some shades of it the corresponding 
epithet Romantic. And yet, in these Scriptural 
instances of which I am speaking, there is a 
subdued tone of feeling, a calmness of resolve, 
and an entire absence of enthusiasm, which at 
once dispels all suspicion of disordered fancy or 
over-excited passions. Moses exhibited this when 
pleading with the Almighty in behalf of a people 
unthankful to him as well as to God, he refused 
for their sake the holy privilege of being made 

f See, e. g. 1 Cor. ii. 3, 4. 

g .Aristotelis Ethic. Nic. lib. vii. c. 1. 



Miraculous improvement of natural powers. 131 

the father of a new people unto God b . Paul 
exhibited this, when, like Moses, he declared his 
wish to be accursed for Israel 1 . These, however, 
it may be said, are instances of heroic generosity, 
which if few or none could have attained under 
ordinary circumstances, all, at least, can sym- 
pathize with — it is human nature, or like it. But 
what shall we say of one who could go through 
a scene such as Ezekiel describes, in the way 
that he did, and relate it in the language he has 
done? "The word of the Lord came unto me, 
saying, Son of man, behold, I take away from 
thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke : yet 
neither shalt thou mourn nor weep, neither shall 
thy tears run down. Forbear to cry, make no 
mourning for the dead, bind the tire of thine 
head upon thee, and put on thy shoes upon thy 
feet, and cover not thy lips, and eat not the 
bread of men. So I spake unto the people in 
the morning ; and at even my wife died : and I 
did in the morning as I was commanded^." We 
may doubt how much of the prophet's stern com- 
posure was the hardy growth of his original 

h Numb. xiv. ' Rom. ix. 3. k Ezek. xxiv. 15. 

k2 



132 The nature and extent of Inspiration, 

nature, and how much arose from the infused 
strength of Him who inspired him ; but human 
nature alone it could not have been. Need we be 
expressly told, as Paul has told us in his own case, 
that Ezekiel was acting under the divine assur- 
ance, " My grace is sufficient for thee, for my 
strength is made perfect in weakness 1 ?" 

These characteristics of divine influence on the 
conduct and feelings of the inspired are the more 
striking, that they by no means imply a general 
exemption from the ordinary failings and feeble- 
ness, and even the grosser vices to which man's 
corrupt nature is subject. They are characteristic 
of the inspired minister's official character, and 
arise out of the exercise of qualities given or 
improved with especial reference to the inspired 
calling. David, the man after God's own heart — 
he who, of all the ministers under the old dis- 
pensation, is thus represented as fulfilling most 
perfectly his official inspired character — was, we 
know, from that same record, betrayed into 
crimes so flagrant, as to draw down on himself 

1 2 Cor. xii. 9. Other striking instances from the New 
Testament narratives were noticed, when we were considering 
the internal Proofs of Inspiration. See part i. §. 9. p. 81. 



Miraculous improvement of natural powers. 133 

and his people the awful display of divine chas- 
tisement. 

It does not appear, moreover, that the divine 
agents were perpetually conscious of the kind of 
inspiration, of which I am now speaking, beyond, 
at least, the consciousness which they must have 
felt of improved ability. Moses, for example, is 
represented, in his negociations w T ith Pharaoh, 
and in the discharge of his official duties gene- 
rally, as acting no otherwise than if his inspired 
qualifications had been the result of nature or of 
education. Miraculous assurance was needed, 
that sufficient grace would be given him ; and 
this being granted, there was no more reason for 
a perpetual consciousness of this divine help, 
than there is now to assure us of the assistance 
of the Holy Spirit in regulating our lives, once 
proved, as this has been, by miracle. The 
apostles, it is true, were forbidden to meditate 
beforehand what defence they were to make 
before the tribunals of their enemies: still there 
is no reason to suppose that even in the act of so 
speaking, they were conscious of more than the 
exercise of natural pow T ers. It was, in short, the 
employment of human eloquence and human 



134 The nature and extent of Inspiration. 

reasoning improved and called into appropriate 
use by the secret operation of the Holy Ghost. 

Nor, again, is there any reason to suppose, 
that, by virtue of this kind of Inspiration alone, 
the inspired agent was exempted from error in 
every step he took. His faculties were adequately 
improved, but not. as far as we can judge, per- 
fected. He was infallibly directed as to the 
object or purpose for which they were to be 
exercised ; the attainment of that object, the 
accomplishment of that purpose, was certain; 
but, as to the several measures pursued by the 
agent for this end, these appear to have been left, 
for the most part, to his own discretion. His 
only consciousness of miraculous interposition 
(except on extraordinary occasions) was, that, 
whereas he had been weak or ignorant, now he 
was strong and well-instructed ; and he was the 
same free agent in the exercise of this his im- 
proved nature, as he had been before its mira- 
culous improvement. Moses was provided with 
prudence, with courage, with political wisdom, 
and with other attainments requisite for the dis- 
charge of his sacred duty ; and these were called 
into exercise by the occasion, and exercised ac- 



Miraculous improvement of natural powers. 135 

cording to his discretion. If he directed them 
aright, no signs of divine interposition appeared ; 
if otherwise, then the Almighty Guide's purpose 
was secured, by an interference, the nature of 
which will be more particularly considered by and 
by. So, likewise, the writers of Scripture had, 
doubtless, according to the character of their task, 
their memories quickened, their reasoning powers 
strengthened, and their talents for authorship 
generally improved, by inspiration ; but they, 
nevertheless, appear to have exercised their 
memory, their reasoning powers, their judgment, 
their taste, and their fancy, with the same absence 
of conscious interference and control in general, 
as if they had been uninspired. The infallible 
guidance of the Church, both in their day and in 
after times, w^as sufficiently provided for, by a 
sensible interposition, whenever this general pre- 
paration might have been inadequate for some 
particular emergency, or was inadequately applied 
by the fallible human agent who had been en- 
trusted with its use. It is obvious, indeed, to the 
most careless observer, that their style and other 
points of authorship are not uniform, as if they 
had been made merely passive instruments of 



136 The nature and extent of Inspiration. 

inspiration ; but exhibit all the usual peculiarities, 
which distinguish one uninspired author from 
another. Xenophon does not differ more from 
Thucydides, in his style and in the character of 
his narratives, than St. Luke does from St. John. 



§.7. Superintendence of the Holy Spirit. 

It is inconceivable that God should interpose 
miraculous agency for the accomplishment of any 
object, and then allow his purpose to be defeated 
through any defect in its application. If this, at 
least, be so, in any case when the individual 
entrusted with supernatural power is the only 
person whose interest is involved in its use, 
and may be reasonably supposed to forfeit a 
blessing provided because of his neglect and 
perverseness ; it cannot be so, on any view we 
derive from God's known dealings with mankind, 
when the interests of others are made to depend 
on the holy Agent's work — certainly not, when 
the guidance of his Church, and that knowledge 
of Him by which they will be judged, depends 
on it. 



Superintendence of the Holy Spirit. 137 

It is true, that, at this day, it is left apparently 
to the discretion of every Christian, whether and 
how far he shall contribute to enlighten with 
Gospel truth his more ignorant brethren and the 
heathen ; and the way in which one man's good 
principles and religious knowledge are made to 
depend on another, is one of the most mysterious 
and solemn subjects of religious meditation. It 
is true, that God has spoken to his prophets in 
such terms as these : ' ' When I say unto the 
wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest 
him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked 
from his wicked way, to save his life ; the same 
wicked man shall die in his iniquity ; but his 
blood will I require at thine hand'V But in 
these cases, it is part of the original appointment 
of Providence, that his revelation should be so 
far left to the responsible use of those entrusted 
with it ; and this fact is, in the one case, the 
subject of express declaration, in the other is 
implied in the constitution and condition of his 
Church. That God should reveal what he in- 
tended absolutely to be made known, that He 
should command what he had predestined to 

m Ezekiel iii. 18. 



138 The nature and extent of Inspiration. 

come to pass, and not secure his object, is quite a 
different and an inconceivable case. 

The exercise of a divine superintendence then, 
as part of the scheme of Inspiration, is not only 
probable, but a necessary result of the appoint- 
ment of human and fallible beings to be, at the 
same time, the instruments of GocPs will, and 
also, free agents, and responsible for the use of 
their high and holy trust. 

That the fact is so — that the prophets and other 
inspired servants of the Most High, even after 
the miraculous improvement of their faculties, 
were not passive instruments, but instrumental 
agents, exercising their new powers and acquire- 
ments even as they did those derived from nature 
and education, with a responsible free-will — would 
seem almost certain, even from the general tenor 
of their ministry. In their acts and in their 
writings, (as I have already had occasion to 
remark,) there is the same individuality of cha- 
racter, the same impress of individual will, as in 
the acts and writings of uninspired persons. 

The assertions of Scripture confirm this view. 
In the Old Testament we read of Balaam's 
resistance to the divine will, and of other perverse 



Superintendence of the Holy Spirit. 1 39 

or corrupt prophets " ; in the New, we meet with 
notices of an abuse of spiritual gifts, which 
called forth a solemn rebuke and warning from the 
apostle Paul . That same apostle, in one passage 
of his writings, represents prophecy as given by 
the Spirit p ; in another, reminds the inspired, that 
the spirits of the prophets are subject to the pro- 
phets' 1 ; and in another, charges Timothy, not to 
neglect the gift that was given him by prophecy'. 
St. Peter asserts, that "holy men of God spake 
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost s ;" and 
yet subjoins allusions to false prophets, such as 
" Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages 
of unrighteousness," and " was rebuked for his 
iniquity *." 

Why the Almighty should have chosen this 
method of communicating with mankind — why 
he should have selected an imperfect channel for 
his oracles, which it would require a further in- 



" See, for example, the account of Jonah, and that given in 
1 Kings xiii. of the prophet of Bethel and the man of God 
that came from Judah. 

1 Cor. xiv. 26. p 1 Cor. xii. 10. q 1 Cor. xiv. 32. 

r 1 Tim. iv. 14. s 2 Pet. i. 21. < 2 Pet. ii. 15, 16. 



140 The nature and extent of Inspiration. 

terposition to correct or perfect, rather than 
address us by instruments at once constituted 
infallible, is a speculation which belongs not to 
my argument. If the fact be as it has been 
stated, we are only tempting ourselves astray 
from the profitable consideration of it, by pre- 
sumptuously calling in question its wisdom. It 
is doubtless wisest and best that it should have 
been so, whether or no we are able to compre- 
hend the wisdom and goodness of the scheme. 
And this, at least, we can understand, that to us 
it could have made no difference, whether, like 
the natural machinery of the universe, that of 
Revelation had been made self-sufficient, or, (as 
was the case,) so as to require the hand of super- 
intending Providence to direct and regulate its 
movements. It is God's appointment, (and very 
serious reflections should it awaken in every 
Christian, on the share of duty that thereby de- 
volves on him,) that in the whole scheme of his 
dealings with mankind, man should be the agent 
of his mercy to man. In the last dispensation, 
this ordinance, if before imperfectly developed, 
has been set forth in the most explicit language ; 
and is represented indeed as the characterising 



Superintendence of the Holy Spirit. 141 

principle of the Gospel law. Mankind were, 
in the first place, to be redeemed by " the Son 
of man." The redeemed were, by a further 
enactment, made partakers of spiritual help and 
sanctihcation, only as members one of another — 
associates in a confederacy, wherein all are 
friends and brethren, and communion with God 
must begin from communion with one another. 
Instead of some awful revolution in the state of 
heaven and earth, in which, a recognition of the 
immediate presence of the universal Lord and. 
Creator, might have awakened the whole world 
from apathy or error, to confess, and adore, and 
obey Him ; all nations were appointed to be 
added to the Church through the missionary ex- 
ertions of his human angels and their successors. 
God's immediate manifestation extended but to 
the few who commenced the work. He gave 
but the seed, and left it to germinate and grow 
into the tree; he cast in but the little leaven, and 
counted on its leavening the whole mass. It is 
in strict accordance with all this, and one portion 
of the scheme, that, for the great provision of a 
recorded revelation, man was the appointed agent. 
God the Holy Ghost only superintended his 



142 The nature and extent of Inspiration. 

work, and saw and pronounced that it was 
good. 

The way in which this divine superintendence 
was manifested was probably not uniform ; and the 
occasional suggestion or prohibition which arose 
out of it might have been communicated, some- 
times, like the original revelations, by vision, or 
voice, or dream. Such certainly was the case 
with Balaam's rebuke. That form of communi- 
cation, however, which has been denoted by the 
phrase " instinctive impulse," would seem from 
its character to have been oftenest applicable to 
this purpose. When, for example, Paul and his 
companions are described as first " forbidden of 
the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia," and 
afterwards "not suffered to go into Bithynia"," 
it is not said whether the prohibitions were given 
by a dream, or how ; but such an instinctive im- 
pulse might have been sufficient to make the 
apostle feel that his purpose was not agreeable to 
the will of the Spirit. 

In whatever way, however, the inspiration of 
superintendence operated, it is distinguished from 
the miraculous improvement of the natural 

" Acts xvi. 6, 7. 



Superintendence of the Holy Spirit. 143 

powers of the agent in some important points. 
According to the old metaphysicians, man's soul 
consists of two great constituent parts — the 
governing and the governed. Whilst therefore that 
inspiration for any holy agency, which consisted 
in a miraculous improvement of the faculties, 
affected chiefly the latter, the inspiration of 
superintendence must, for the most part, have 
been addressed to the governing principle ; or 
rather, for the time, must have superseded and 
suspended its authority. When the servant of 
the Most High, although qualified by a miraculous 
improvement of his powers for his task, was yet, 
by some emergency, brought into doubt, or 
became liable to error, or forgetfulness — whenever, 
in short, his own powders, natural and inspired, 
were in danger of being misdirected, or feebly 
exerted — God assumed the extraordinary direction 
of them, or improved the strength and energy 
which were lacking 

It follows from this, that, as a further feature 
of distinction, the inspiration which consisted 
in a miraculous improvement of the natural 
powers, could not be appealed to as conferring 
authority on what the agent did or said. It was 



144 The nature and extent of Inspiration. 

given to him for assistance, not for authority. 
The inspiration of superintendence, and the 
original commission or revelation, constituted the 
warrant on which he required obedience, or 
unqualified assent, from those to whom he min- 
istered. Paul, for example, continued to exercise 
his highly improved powers no less when giving 
advice to the Corinthians respecting the ex- 
pediency of their marrying, than when instruct- 
ing them in the duty of not divorcing their 
wives ; but to his advice on the former point, as it 
formed no part of the original Gospel he had 
received, or of the interference of the superin- 
tending inspiration under which he wrote, he 
is careful to add, " I speak this by permission, 
and not of commandment. " When he proceeds 
to speak concerning divorces, he as distinctly 
asserts the divine authority of his words ; this 
having been rendered requisite by the former 
exception: "I command, yet not I, but the 
Lord*." 

The respective uses and characteristics of these 
two kinds of inspiration may be illustrated thus. 
A state or monarch sends an ambassador abroad. 

x 1 Cor. vii. 



Superintendence of the Holy Spirit. 1 45 

In order to qualify him for his embassy, he is 
instructed in the language of the country, pro- 
vided, perhaps, with the coins of the country, 
and supplied with other facilities. These advance 
the object of his embassy ; but in a very 
different way from the sovereign's commission, 
and the letters of authority which he carries with 
him — they confer on him, in short, power, but 
not authority. Now these facilities correspond 
to that inspiration which consists in improved 
talents ; whilst the original revelation, and the 
occasional suggestions and checks of the in- 
spiration of superintendence, may be repre- 
sented ; the first, by the sovereign's commission, 
the latter, by the dispatches which he, from time 
to time, might have sent to his ambassador. 

Such being the use and nature of the super- 
intending inspiration, it is obviously a point 
of all others the most important to fix on the 
extent of its operation. If on its operation 
depends the authority of any inspired ministry, 
it must be quite essential for the guidance of 
those who are the objects of that ministry, to 
know what are the points that are to be con- 
sidered as bearing the impress of its sanction. 



146 The nature and extent of Inspiration. 

In our own case, this inquiry should, of course, 
be principally directed to the authority of the 
Scriptures, inasmuch as they comprise that portion 
of the ministry of God's inspired agents which 
claim his authority over us ; and on the distinct 
consideration of this we shall presently enter. On 
the general question, therefore, how far the In- 
spiration of Superintendence controlled inspired 
agents, the less need be said here. The obvious 
principle, which regulated its extent, may in general 
terms be stated to be, the accomplishment of the 
particular purpose for which the divine commission 
was given, and not beyond this. Its extent must 
thus have corresponded to one's own part in the 
authorship of a letter, the composition of which 
has been entrusted to another, furnished for that 
purpose with general directions what to say. If 
this letter be afterwards revised and corrected, 
as far as needful, by him for whom it was 
written ; his part in the performance may per- 
haps not unfitly represent the interference of the 
Holy Spirit in the writing of the Scriptures. 
Or we may take another illustration. A physician 
gives particular directions to his patient, and 
exercises also a general superintendence over his 



Superintendence of the Holy Spirit. 147 

diet and habits of life ; but these directions and 
this superintendence leave the patient still at 
liberty to live in many respects according to his 
own discretion — in all respects, namely, except 
the doing of such things as might prevent the 
success of the physician's plan of treatment. The 
extent of God's interference in the inspired 
agency of his servants would seem naturally to 
have been regulated on a similar principle ; and 
the particular investigation of the fact, as far as 
relates to the Scriptures, will confirm this view. 



l 2 



PART III 



THE AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE, 



§. 1. General principles for deciding the authority 
of any Scripture. 

C*OD who in times past addressed his Church 
by his inspired messengers and by the one 
mediator his Son, addresses us now by his Scrip- 
tures. The practical question, therefore, to which 
the foregoing inquiry brings us, is, What autho- 
rity belongs to the Bible in consequence of its 
inspiration ? 

It has appeared that " all Scripture is given 
by inspiration ;" inasmuch as we recognise, 
besides positive revelation, a miraculous im- 
provement of the author's powers for the whole 
of his task, and also a superintending divine 
agency. But, how are we to determine what 



1 50 The authority of Scripture. 

portions of the sacred volume are characterised 
by one kind of inspiration, and what by the other? 
Are we to suppose that this superintendence 
extended to all the authorship? or, if confined 
to some particular portions, what were these ? 
Wherever its interference is acknowledged, the 
authority of Scripture must, from its nature, be 
certain and infallible : but, in its absence, even 
positive revelations received by an author, may, 
from inaccuracy of memory, or error of observa- 
tion, (setting aside the possibility of intentional 
misrepresentation,) fail to ensure his giving an 
accurate representation of them. 

Scripture has not left us to conjecture on so 
important a point ; which would indeed imply, 
that its divine Author had provided us with a 
heavenly gift, without instructing us how to use 
it. The Bible contains many passages declaratory 
of the criterion by w T hich its inspiration must be 
judged. " All Scripture," writes St. Paul, (and 
what was true of all Scripture then, must be in- 
tended to apply to that he was then compos- 
ing, and to all further additions,) " is given 
by inspiration, and is profitable for doctrine, 
for reproof, for correction, for instruction in 



Gen eral principles. 1 5 1 

righteousness*." In other words, to religious 
instruction of whatever kind is confined the 
Scriptural character of Scripture — the agency of 
the Holy Spirit. The same test is elsewhere 
spoken of as applicable to the apostolical ministry 
generally, and is commonly expressed by the 
term edification b . It is not, therefore, truth of all 
kinds that the Bible was inspired to teach, but 
only such truth as tends to religious edification ; 
and the Bible is consequently infallible as far as 
regards this, and this alone. The Saviour's 
promise to his apostles (as is evident from their 
own view of the assistance they were receiving) 
was not, that he would guide them into all truth 
whatever, but into all such truth. Indeed the 
expression, which is translated " all truth," might 
(as everyone who understands the original is aware) 
be rendered with equal fidelity, and I should say 
with more propriety, " all the truth'" — " the 
truth" being a phrase often employed by our 
Saviour to designate the Christian scheme. 

Accordingly, if we wish to determine the 
authority of any assertion or direction in Scrip- 

* 2 Tim. iii. 16. b E. g. 2 Cor. xii. 19. x. 8. xiii. 10. 

c TTtcrxv rijv oLxyfaw . John xvi. 13. 



152 The authority of Scripture. 

ture, the rule which Scripture itself furnishes 
is, that, as far as it is religious instruction, it is 
infallible; as far as it is not, its authority is that 
which attaches to the work of an honest and 
sincere author, and varies according to his in- 
dividual circumstances, and the circumstances of 
the country and age in which he wrote. 

§.2. Historical and other statements of facts. 

When, for example, Moses, in relating the 
history of the Creation, speaks of the sun being 
set in the firmament b , his authority for the 
astronomical truth is only human, the religious 
truth involved in it is, that God created and 
appointed the sun its sphere ; and in this the 
authority of Moses is infallible. In St. Luke's 
Gospel c , Herodias is described as the wife of 
Philip the tetrarch Herod's brother ; Jose- 
phus represents the brother of the tetrarch 
as likewise called Herod. The religious truth 
here remains unchanged, whichever of these as- 
sertions be correct ; and accordingly we may 
safely leave the question to be decided, as if 

b Gen. i. 17. c Chap. iii. 19. 






Historical and other statements. 153 

both authors were alike uninspired, the inspiration 
of the Evangelist not being at all affected by the 
issue. St. Matthew relates the cure of a leper 
by Jesus as he came down from a mountain, and 
before he had entered into Capernaum; St. Luke's 
account is, that Jesus was in Capernaum at the 
time, and withdrew after the miracle into the 
wilderness (i . In this instance there is an ap- 
parent contradiction between the statements of 
two inspired writers ; but clearly not in that 
respect in which they were inspired. The essential 
circumstances of the miracle, the religious in- 
struction conveyed, remains the same, and the 
inspiration of the author is unimpeached, whether 
the contradiction be owing to a lapse of memory 
in one, (the point being too unimportant to call 
for the divine interposition to correct it,) or be 
only apparent and admit of explanation 6 . 

a Matt. viii. compared with Luke v. 

e The same remark will apply to the account of a blind man 
healed by Jesus as given by Mark and Luke. According to 
Mark (x. 46.) it took place as Jesus was going out of Jericho, 
whilst Luke represents him as going into Jericho when he per- 
formed it. There are several other instances of the same kind. 
See note to Dr. Whately's Ninth Essay on the Difficulties of 
St. Paul, p. 313. 



1 54 The authority of Scripture. 

At the same time that the Holy Spirit should 
have allowed his agents to commit abundant or 
gross errors, beyond their age and circumstances, 
on any subject, must be felt as a supposition 
derogatory to the character of an inspired work ; 
and inasmuch as it would have brought discredit 
on the Scripture, was, doubtless, provided against 
by that general improvement of talent, which has 
been recognised as one branch of inspiration. 
Indeed, the same extent of superintendence may, 
not unreasonably, be claimed even for their 
style and grammatical propriety, when we con- 
sider, how much the work of any inspired author 
would have lost in estimation — how much sus- 
picion it would have excited — if it had displayed 
all the worst faults of a rude and unlettered 
attempt to write. 

The labours of those, accordingly, who have 
endeavoured to vindicate the Scriptures from 
apparent mistakes on subjects of natural science ; 
and still more of those who have sought to re- 
concile their assertions of historical facts with 
those of profane history and of each other, are 
not to be considered as useless or unimportant. 
Only let us never allow the question of inspira- 



Historical and other statements. 1 55 

tion to depend on the full success of such a 
vindication. Scripture does not claim these views 
and facts as part of the subject-matter of its 
infallible inspiration ; and the consequence of 
claiming this character for them is not unfre- 
quently to awaken suspicion, and to create dis- 
belief of all inspiration. And this feeling operates 
perhaps the most fatally when it is least likely to 
be expressed. It is not the philosopher pining in 
a dungeon that exhibits the worst results of such 
a system. Bigotry can do more than bind the 
strong man — she can beguile him of that holy 
strength which resists her worst bondage — she 
can bring him to conform and be indifferent. 
The w T ell known protest which appears on the 
pages of the celebrated French edition of Newton f , 
is after all a more melancholy record than the his- 
tory of Galiileo's imprisonment. It exhibits that 
unresisting acquiescence which results from a want 



f Newtonus in hoc tertio libro telluris motae hypothesim 
assumit. Auctoris propositiones aliter explicari non poterant, 
nisi eadem quoque facta hypothesi. Hinc alienam coacti 
sumus gerere personam. Caeterum latis a summis Pontificibus 
contra telluris moturn decretis nos obsequi profitemur. 



156 The authority of Scripture. 

of faith, and an indifference to the object of it — 
it is the submission of the strong man when his 
locks have been shorn. 



§.3. Doctrines and precepts. 

The foregoing remarks have been directed to 
the mode in which the test of infallibility may be 
applied to a narrative of events or a statement of 
facts in the Bible. But Scripture, whilst it ex- 
hibits our religion as founded on facts and events, 
comprises a great deal more. Its authors were 
employed not only as historians and witnesses, 
but as expositors of the great historical picture 
of God's dealings and revelations — in exhort- 
ing, commanding, and reasoning with us — in 
giving us precepts and principles for regu- 
lating our behaviour, as individuals, and as a 
church. 

To all this didactic portion of Scripture, the 
same test is appropriate, which has been applied 
to the historical department. Infallible authority 
must here too depend on some religious view being 
involved, some reference to God's appointments 
being implied. The direction of Paul to Timothy 



Doctrines and precepts. 157 

to bring his cloak, books, and parchments-, and 
his advice to him to "use a little wine for his 
stomach's sake, and his often infirmities \" are 
written indeed by an inspired person, and one who 
must so far have communicated the character of in- 
spiration to all he wrote, as his talents for writing- 
were made adequate to his holy calling, but 
derive no infallibility from this circumstance — 
no religious view is involved. When, on the 
other hand, he directs the same Timothy to 
" lay hands suddenly on no man'/' asserts that 
" God was manifest in the flesh k ," or tells him, 
" the things that thou hast heard of me among 
many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful 
men, who shall be able to teach others also 1 " — 
the subject, in each instance, belongs to religion, 
and his words, accordingly, become the words of 
God. 

And yet, (it may be suggested,) in the inter- 
course which subsisted between such a writer 
as St. Paul, and the Church, may we not sup- 
pose, that his advice was often asked on points, 
relating indeed to the Church or to the conduct 

s 2 Tim. iv. 13. h 1 Tim. iv. 23. j 1 Tim. iv. 22. 

k 1 Tim. iii. 16. '2 Tim. ii. 2. 



1 58 The authority of Scripture. 

of individual members — connected, in short, with 
religion — but not designed by the Holy Spirit 
to be certainly and for ever decided one way or 
the other ? Such cases did undoubtedly occur ; 
and let us observe the apostle's careful avoidance 
of allowing the advice he so gave to be mixed 
up with the words of revelation and infallible 
wisdom. Whenever the subject itself is such as 
might lead the reader to suppose that his views 
were controlled by the superintending Spirit of 
God, the fact being otherwise, he puts in an 
express caution that it is he, Paul, and not the 
Lord, who is speaking 1 ". And this was doubtless 
the rule of his ministry in preaching as well as 
in writing. The same principle which made him 
so eager to disclaim divine worship and honour 
when offered to his person", necessarily led him 
to reject the character of holy infallibity, when 
he was employing his own human wisdom. 

Indeed, if we may draw an inference from one 
instance placed on record, the apostles and their 
coadjutors probably had, from time to time, 
salutary proofs and admonitions of the need 
there was thus expressly to caution those to 

m See 1 Cor. vii. " Acts xiv. 15. 



Doctrines and precepts. 159 

whom they were conveying the messages of God, 
not to confound with these their own uninspired 
suggestions. When Paul took his solemn and 
affecting farewell of the elders at Miletus, (as re- 
corded in the twentieth chapter of the Acts,) the 
most distressing circumstance in their parting 
was, that he told them they should see his face no 
more. It appears likely from other parts of the 
New Testament, that this desponding presage was 
not fulfilled. He did certainly return to Asia 
Minor, and even to Miletus 1 . Was his inspired 
character then affected by the result ? By no 
means. The narrative is, that not Paul him- 
self, but others " in every city," were inspired to 
say that bonds awaited him. Thus much, and 
no more, the Holy Spirit revealed. The further 
comment was his own. And there was so good 
reason, according to all human probability, for 
apprehending the worst, as fully to explain the 
melancholy foreboding of the apostle and his 
friends, without supposing either party to have 
regarded as inspired prophecy, expressions which, 
in the parting hour of friends, have been again 

' See note in the Appendix. 



160 The authority of Scripture. 

and again suggested by the very uncertainty of 
the future. 



§.4. The reasoning of Scriptural writers. 

The application of the test proposed, then, to 
all that a Scriptural writer asserts or enjoins, 
seems clear and certain. Whenever the assertion 
or injunction involves any doctrine, any moral 
or religious truth, or, in short, has any bearing 
on religion, so far it must be considered as 
infallible and unquestionable. But it may not 
be so readily granted, that when there is reasoning 
as well as assertion and command, the infallibility 
which attaches to the assertion must likewise 
attach to the premises. For, (it may be urged,) 
if the assertion or command is to rest on the 
authority of the writer's inspiration, what purpose 
can argument serve ? The miraculous evidence 
for inspiration supersedes and takes the place of 
that reasoning which would otherwise be needful 
to prove or to enforce the writer's words. 
" When divine writers," observes Bishop Burnet, 
" argue upon any point, we are always bound 



Doctrines and precepts. 161 

to believe the conclusions that these reasonings 
end in, as parts of divine revelation ; but we are 
not bound to be able to make out, or even assent 
to, all the premises made use of by them ; unless 
it appears plainly that they affirm the premises 
as expressly, as they do the conclusions proved 
by them k ." Paley holds the like language: "In 
reading the apostolic writings, we distinguish 
between their doctrines and their arguments. 
Their doctrines came to them by revelation, pro- 
perly so called ; yet in propounding these doc- 
trines in their writings or discourses, they were 
wont to illustrate, support, and enforce them, 
by such analogies, arguments, and considerations, 
as their own thoughts suggested. Thus the call 
of the Gentiles, that is, the admission of the 
Gentiles to the Christian profession, without a 
previous subjection to the law of Moses, was 
imparted to the apostles by revelation, and was 
attested by the miracles, which attended the 
Christian ministry amongst them. The apostles' 
own assurance of the matter rested upon this 
foundation. The doctrine itself must be received; 
but it is not necessary, in order to defend Chris- 

k Burnet on the XXXtX Articles, Art. VI. 
M 



162 The authority of Scripture. 

tianity, to defend the propriety of every com- 
parison, or the validity of every argument, which 
the apostle has brought into the discussion. 
The same observation applies to some other 
instances 1 ." 

The argument so stated wears, it must be 
confessed, a great show of plausibility, and I was 
induced by it to concede the point, in some hints 
which I formerly threw out on the subject, and 
to apply the view of Burnet and Paley to the 
apostles' reasoning from the prophecies of the 
Old Testament" 1 . An anxious and renewed con- 
sideration of the question has since led me to doubt 
the justness of it, on the ground, that it is hardly 
consistent with the dignity of Scripture to sup- 
pose the writers left liable to any false reasoning, 
or to any mistaken application of old prophecy : 
liable, I say, because the question is not realiy one 
of fact, as the Bible may be confidently defended 
against the charge of actual error of either kind. 

The true statement appears to be this. All 
reasoning must proceed from something known 

1 Paley's Evidences, vol. ii. part iii. chap. 2. 
H1 Appendix to History of the Rise and Early Progress of 
Christianity. 



Doctrines and precepts. 163 

to something unknown or less known ; or else, 
however true both premises and conclusion 
may be, it is useless. It is clear, therefore, 
that if any one not only infallibly knows, but 
is understood and allowed infallibly to know, 
that which he is asserting, all reasoning in sup- 
port of his assertion is superfluous. But it should 
be borne in mind, that although to us the pre- 
mises, the reasoning, and the conclusions of an 
inspired writer are alike known to be infallible, 
because they are all recognised as the result of 
infallible inspiration ; — although the same must 
have been the case with those more immediately 
addressed in the sacred writings ; — still, those 
writings were doubtless designed to w r ork con- 
viction in many also who did not yet admit their 
inspiration, or full inspiration — on unbelievers, 
or on those who were wavering and undecided 
about the truth of Christianity. What St. Paul 
directs to be done in his Epistle to the Corinth- 
ians n , in the case of speaking a foreign language, 
interpreting, and prophesying, involves the prin- 
ciple, on which he may reasonably be supposed 
to have performed his own ministry in preaching 

" I Cor. xiv. 23 — 25. 

m2 



164 The authority of Scripture, 

and in writing. In the latter, especially, he was, 
as a Scriptural author, addressing always other 
persons, other ages and places, as well as those 
nominally and primarily addressed. He was 
framing an instrument of instruction, which was 
to last when miracles had ceased ; and which 
might possibly, even in his own day, have proved 
effectual among many whom miracles had not 
yet reached. Many, too, there must have been, 
even of those who had an opportunity of wit- 
nessing miracles, who were likely to be more 
readily attracted, in the first instance, by an 
appeal to their understandings, than by a public 
display of signs and wonders addressed to the 
senses. On all such an apostle's infallible reason- 
ing must have taken effect, precisely in the same 
manner as his miraculous gift of eloquence. It 
must have produced the natural results of sound 
reasoning ; and must have been convincing, not 
because it was known to be inspired, but because 
it was understood to be conclusive. We know 
that the apostle's application of prophecy was infal- 
lible; but such persons would allow the argument 
founded on this application, not because they 
admitted his inspiration and infallibility, but 



Doctrines and precepts. 165 

because their own understandings recognised the 
application. And such a supposition is, in fact, 
strongly confirmed by the character of the apo- 
stolic reasoning; which turns, almost exclusively, 
on the fulfilment of ancient prophecy and type — 
the natural source of argument intended for the 
conviction of the Jews dispersed throughout the 
world ; who, if satisfied with the application of 
their prophecies, w-ould at once recognise in it 
evidence as truly miraculous, as the exhibition of 
signs and wonders. 

But, wdiatever may be thought of this explana- 
tion — supposing we w 7 ere to consider the inspired 
reasoning of apostles and others as designed 
solely for believers in its inspiration — even so, it 
may have pleased our divine Instructor, for some 
ends unknown to us, to accomplish his purpose 
not uniformly, but by a variety of means — by 
sometimes inspiring his agents with the truths 
to be asserted ; and sometimes providing them 
with the premises and reasoning, by the use of 
which they were to arrive infallibly at such truths, 
Why should we scruple to admit this view T ; wiien 
it is obvious, that in the works of creation, there is 
not one uniform method of accomplishing nature's 



166 The authority of Scripture. 

ends, but many different processes, and some 
more direct than others ? There is even an ap- 
parent object attained by this variety in the mode 
of instructing the Church through its inspired 
teachers. Although in their own case, simple 
assertion of doctrine might have been sufficient 
to secure assent from believers ; still their un- 
inspired successors were to employ reasoning 
both in propagating and in enforcing divine 
truth ; and it might have been needful with a 
view to their ministry — to the perpetual and 
established procedure of the Church — that an 
example should have been set, a precedent given, 
by inspired teachers. These extraordinary min- 
isters were instructors and guides, it should be 
remembered, not of the Church merely, but of the 
Church's future instructors and guides. Their 
commission was not only themselves to teach the 

° " According to our manner of conception, God makes use 
of variety of means, what we often think tedious ones, in the 
natural course of providence, for the accomplishment of all 
his ends. Indeed it is certain there is somewhat in this matter 
quite beyond our comprehension; but the mystery is as great 
in nature as in Christianity." Butler's Analogy, part ii. 
chap. 4. 



The Mosaic Law. 167 

Gospel, but so to commit the same to their succes- 
sors that they too might be able to teach others p . 
Like their Lord and Master, they were examples 
as well as teachers — examples to future teachers 
and guides of the Church — and the wisdom of 
God may be reasonably supposed to have directed 
them to do, as their Lord had done, many things 
that were needful, not so much for themselves, as 
for a pattern to us. 



$.5. Modifications arising from the character of 
the Mosaic institution. 

Enough, perhaps, has now been stated to 
enable us to conclude, that the test of infallible 
authority in Scripture, (viz. its reference to God 
or his appointments,) is applicable to all the 
various kinds of composition of which the Bible 
is made up — to its history, and to its doctrinal 
instruction, as well as to that portion which I 
have not thought it necessary particularly to 
notice — its unfulfilled prophecy. It is plain, too, 
that this test is applicable, whether the author is 
p 2 Tim. ii. 2. 



168 The authority of Scripture. 

merely asserting, or obtains his conclusion by a 
process of reasoning ; whether he is expounding 
events, or fixing the application of any prophecy. 
Of this general statement there is, however, 
one obvious modification. It arises from the 
fulfilment of some portions of the Mosaic law, 
and the abrogation of others — the fulfilment of 
those directions which had a prophetic meaning, 
the annulment of those which related to the Jews 
as a civil society, and which were inspired indeed, 
and of infallible authority to them, but have lost 
that authority now by the Law becoming merged 
in the Gospel. So obvious an exception might 
seem hardly to require a specific notice, were it 
not notorious how often it has been denied or 
overlooked. The scruples of numbers in the 
Church for many centuries respecting the obliga- 
tion to observe portions of the ceremonial law 
are well known ; nor have the civil ordinances of 
the Israelites been exempt from being confounded, 
by a like misplaced respect, with the eternal and 
universal laws of the God of Israel. The com- 
mand to provide for the Levites, by setting apart 
a tithe of the produce of the country, has scarcely 
yet ceased to be insisted on by some, as applicable 



The Mosaic Law. 169 

to the mode of maintaining the ministers of 
religion in all ages. It may be said, however, 
that this ordinance partook more of a religious 
than of a civil character. The influence of the 
law against usury, therefore, is an illustration 
more to the purpose ; and it is one which I 
mention more especially, because it gives me 
occasion to notice two remarkable instances, in 
which, as in the declaration of the French editors 
of the Principia, an attempt to extend the 
authority of religion to matters out of its pro- 
vince, has subjected it to a contemptuous com- 
pliment, really more injurious to it than open 
insult and blasphemy. In a statute passed during 
the reign of James the First, for regulating the 
rate of interest — in other words, for legalizing 
that, which was illegal according to the Law 
of Moses — it was thought necessary to in- 
troduce a clause, disavowing any intention of 
sanctioning usury in opposition to the word of 
God. The other instance, to which I allude, is 
one of more modern date. Mr. Neckar, in his 
Eloge on Colbert, makes the following amende to 
the authority of Scripture, for having denied the 
justice and expediency of usury laws; " Ce que je 



170 The authority of Scripture. 

dis de l'interet est sons un point de vue politique, 
et n'a point de rapport avec les respectables 
maximes de la religion sur ce point." 



$.6. Cautions respecting the application of the 
foregoing views. 

It is further important to bear in mind, that 
the principle, which excludes any portion of 
Scripture from the claim to infallibility, is not 
that the subject is profane history, or natural 
philosophy — the actions and motives of man, or 
the laws and phenomena of the universe — but 
that the assertion respecting these points involves no 
religious view. It does not, accordingly, authorize 
us to attribute to natural causes any apparently 
natural event or phenomenon, which an inspired 
author has represented as miraculous, on the 
ground that the subject lies out of the sphere of 
his inspiration. The very circumstance of an 
inspired author attributing any result to miracu- 
lous interference, constitutes the subject forthwith 
religious, and obliges us to recognise such a 
spiritual superintendence as must have given 
infallibilitv to his assertions. The sacred writer 



Cautions. 171 

may, without any disparagement to .his inspired 
character, be supposed to have mistaken one 
natural cause for another ; but to imagine him 
capable of representing a natural cause in the 
light of a miracle, or a miracle in the light of 
a natural cause, confounds and overthrows the 
view of inspiration as an infallible guide ; and 
is inconsistent with such a superintending divine 
agency as has been asserted for all Scripture. 
Suppose, for example, the passage of the Red 
Sea by the Israelites could be fully explained by 
some theory of the ebbing and flowing of its 
tides ; this ought not, in the slightest degree, to 
affect our belief that the Israelites passed, and the 
Egyptians were drowned, by a miracle: because 
in the Scripture narrative the scene is described 
as miraculous". Suppose it ascertained that the 
desert, through which the Israelites wandered, 
yields naturally a substance, which can almost be 
identified with the manna on which they sub- 
sisted ; the assertion of Scripture, that it was 
through God's extraordinary interference that they 
were supplied with it, obliges us to attribute the 

r Exodus xiv. 21 — 31. 



] 72 The authority of Scripture. 

formation of that manna to a miracle 5 . For the 
Israelites, indeed, it was necessary, that the in- 
adequacy, or, at least, the absence, of natural 
causes should have been apparent from the cir- 
cumstances themselves ; but we are bound, inde- 
pendently of such considerations, independently 
of any argument founded on the quantity of 
manna produced, or on circumstances which pre- 
clude the possibility of natural causes having 
operated on the waters of the Red Sea, to admit 
the miracle in each case; that is, if we have 
admitted, in the first instance, the inspiration 
of the historian who so represents these facts. 
Suppose, again, the mere human wisdom of a 
great national leader was likely to have suggested 
a discipline of forty years' toil and privation for a 
degenerate host, destined to win a settlement by 
conquest ; if Scripture tells us, that in the case of 
the Israelites it was a punishment inflicted by 
divine command 1 , to God we are bound to ascribe 

8 See Exod. xvi. especially ver. 4. and 32. Compare also 
with the narrative the allusions to it in other Scriptures; for 
example, Psalm lxxviii. 23, 24, 25. where it is called " the corn 
of heaven," and " angels' food." 

1 See Numbers xiv. 28 — 35. Deuteronomy ii. 14, 15. 



Uninspired authority. 1 73 

the otherwise seeming device of man. What 
avails it to prove that there have been hail-stones 
in natural storms, sufficient to have destroyed 
armies, as was that of the Amorites 11 ? or, that the 
jaws and stomach of any fish are naturally so capa- 
cious as to admit and contain a man, as the whale 
did Jonah x ? Scripture tells us, that in these 
particular instances the events came to pass by 
miraculous interference ; and whether in the 
course of nature similar events have occurred or 
not — ever could occur or not — is a question alto- 
gether irrelevant, when we are considering our 
obligation to view these events related in Scrip- 
ture as miracles. 



§.7. Uninspired authority. 

As far as regards the object proposed in this 
inquiry, the inquiry might rest here. The proofs 
requisite for establishing inspiration, the nature 
and the extent of that holy interference, and the 

" Joshua x. 11. See also rer. 8. where the miraculousness 
of the event is further implied by the prophecy that foretold it. 
* Jonah i. 17. 



1 74 The authority of Scripture. 

authority which the Bible especially derives from 
it, all these points have now been successively 
examined . Still the application of the whole view 
will be incomplete, unless, together with the esti- 
mate of inspired authority, we make an estimate 
likewise of the character and authority which may 
attach to mere human compositions. It is not 
enough to have ascertained and admitted the claims 
of Scripture. Those claims may be injured, not 
only by ignorance or denial of them, but by 
communicating them to other writings. The 
rash critic, who deals with the word of God as 
if it proceeded from man alone, is not the only 
profaner of the oracles of the "jealous God." 
To raise human compositions to a level with 
Scripture is practically the same, as to bring down 
Scripture to the level of uninspired authorship ; 
even as it is practically the same thing, whether 
we dig down an eminence, or raise the adjacent 
ground to its level. We censure the enthusiast 
for confounding inspiration with the suggestions 
of his own mind, and regard his notions as im- 
pious and blasphemous ; and we are perhaps 
justified in our censure. But how does his im- 
piety or blasphemy differ from his, who appeals 



Difference of uninspired authority. 1 75 

indifferently to Scripture and to any human 
authority, however sanctified by time and cir- 
cumstances? Surely the only difference is, that, 
in the one case, an uninspired person usurps that 
authority which God has conferred, by inspiration, 
on apostles, and prophets, and others his commis- 
sioned agents ; whilst, in the other case, it is that 
same authority conferred likewise by inspiration 
on the Scriptures, which is usurped by uninspired 
writings. The enthusiast, in short, insults the 
majesty of God speaking through his living serv- 
ants, the other insults Him, as speaking through 
their writings. It is the characteristic of a pro- 
testant Church not merely to deny the au- 
thority of any man to " speak as God ;" but the 
authority of any man's writings to speak as 
the Scriptures of God. 

The charge of placing on a level traditional 
divinity and Scripture is most strictly applicable, 
it is true, to the Romanists. But let us not sup- 
pose, that, provided only we do not equal their folly 
and wickedness in degree, we cannot be impli- 
cated at all in their guilt-. The builders of this 
Babel of human pride and strength may raise 

y See Whately's " Errors of Romanism," ch. iv. 



1 76 The authority of Scripture. 

the tower, some nearer than others, to the hea- 
vens ; but the first stone constitutes the offence. 
Whenever we appeal, on questions of faith and 
duty, to human authority, for the same purpose 
as we do to Scripture — whenever we seek to 
prove, in short, the correctness of our faith by 
man's word — it is not requisite that we should 
place it on an exact level with Scripture in order 
to incur the guilt of dividing our allegiance be- 
tween the human and the divine author. We 
have forthwith violated the distinct and sovereign 
character of the Bible ; and, like Israel worship- 
ping the golden calf which their own hands had 
made, we plead in vain that we have done it in 
honour of Jehovah — in solemn acknowledgment 
of the supreme authority of his word. 

In truth, much practical error has been fos- 
tered, if not caused, in this instance, by the 
ambiguity of a word. We speak of the authority 
of the Scriptures, the authority of the Church, the 
authority of the fathers and orthodox divines of 
later ages, meaning throughout these several 
applications of the word authority, a claim on 
Christians or Churchmen to assent to the decisions 
of Scripture — of the Church — of fathers and other 



Difference of uninspired authority. 177 

theologians ; but implying (if we speak correctly) 
not merely a difference of degree in that claim, 
but a different kind of claim in each. The 
authority of a Church is power — (such as that of 
an executive government) — vested in it by virtue 
of its divine institution, for the purpose of ad- 
ministering the Scriptural laws of Christ's king- 
dom on earth. The authority of the fathers, and 
of other uninspired theologians, is that influence 
which belongs to testimony ; and has, accordingly, 
the same weight in deciding any doubtful appli- 
cation of Scripture, as the authority of one versed 
in history would have in an historical question, 
or of a critic in a question of criticism ; and must 
vary infinitely, according to the learning, the 
talents } the age, and other circumstances of the 
author. The authority of Scripture is different 
again from both — it is analogous to the authority 
of a law or of the charter of a civil constitu- 
tion. It is, in fact, the law, in the administering 
of which the Church exercises its proper au- 
thority ; it is the law, for the interpretation of 
which the proper authority of the fathers and of 
other theologians is called in, as precedents are 
appealed to in our courts of justice. We com- 

N 



1 78 The authority of Scripture. 

monly indeed apply the term Church not only, 
as I have here applied it, to an ecclesiastical con- 
stitution, but also to the fathers, and other 
eminent theologians; and speak of their authority, 
as of the authority of the Church, thus adding 
one more ambiguity to the language employed 
on the subject, and contributing of course still 
further to embarras and confuse the prevailing 
opinions about authority, by the various kindred 
significations of the term. 

Still, it will be urged, has not the Church — the 
ecclesiastical body — a right to set forth Articles, 
Creeds, Confessions, and Catechisms ? and are 
we not to appeal to these, at least, as authority ? 
Undoubtedly we are ; and so we may, likewise, 
appeal to the authority of the fathers and of unin- 
spired divines. All that I would point out is, that 
we cannot properly, in all the cases enumerated, 
appeal to the same kind of authority, or for 
the same purpose. The purpose of a Church's 
Articles, and other similar documents, is to ex- 
press a particular interpretation of Scripture and 
of the will of God, in which interpretation all 
agree who are members of that particular Church. 
They constitute the marks which distinguish that 



Difference of uninspired authority. 179 

Church from all other Christian bodies, that are 
so at variance with it, as to be excluded from 
its communion ; and the adherence to any- 
Church implies the adoption of these its peculiar 
views. If, therefore, the question be, whether a 
Christian can remain in communion with his 
Church, its Articles are the proper test; and the 
rulers of the Church are the persons, whose pro- 
vince it is to make use of this criterion. The 
question is, in fact, a judicial one ; the one party 
being the legal judges, the other amenable to 
their inquiry and decision. If, again, the ques- 
tion be, whether any doctrine be correct or er- 
roneous — or rather, if the very same question be 
handled as a subject of discussion between the 
members of any Church, and neither party be 
official judges of the other — if, in short, the truth 
or falsity of any r assertion be the topic of private 
controversy — for settling this the appropriate and 
sole appeal is to the Scriptures. The authority 
of the fathers, lastly, and indeed of any esteemed 
theologians, may be called in, not only as testi- 
mony to historical facts relative to the prevailing 
opinions of the Church in their age, but for the 
purpose of confirming private judgment, or the 

n 2 



180 The authority of Scripture. 

judgment of the Church, on any matter that 
admits of question. In short, our faith is to be 
proved from Scripture only y ; our right to enjoy 
communion with a Church is to be decided ac- 
cording to our conformity with its Articles and 
Canons ; and both the decisions of the Church, 
and the private judgment of its members, admit 
alike of being confirmed or rendered suspicious, 
by calling in the testimony of uninspired writers 
and uninspired Churches of other times and 
countries. 

It was probably on this principle that Mr. Daille 
designed to rest Christian liberty, in his celebrated 
publication, while the disputes between the Romish 
and the reformed Churches were yet warmly agi- 
tated, and the very sources of appeal still a ques- 
tion. That zealous opponent of the Romish Church 
contented himself, however, with exposing in 
detail the fallibility of the ancient fathers; and by 
leaving the principle itself undefined, produced 
an impression on many of his readers, not so 
much that the authority of the fathers was some- 

J See Hawkins on Tradition; and the whole of chap. iv. 
of Whately's Errors of Romanism. Both should, indeed, be 
not only read, but studied. 



Difference of uninspired authority. 181 

thing different in kind from that of Scripture, 
as that their opinions carried with them no au- 
thority in any sense of the term 2 . Hence the 
question still perpetually led the advocates of 
either side into a vindication of a false position. 
The association between ideas expressed by one 
common term, and connected moreover by com- 
mon links of thought, has undoubtedly a tendency 
to restore the original prejudice, so warmly 
assailed, but never satisfactorily removed. Still, 
experience of the enormous evils resulting from 
the recognition of any human authority, in the 
same sense of the term as that in which we 
apply it to the Scriptural claims, has had a 
salutary and lasting effect on Protestants gene- 
rally. In the case of our own Church, the very 
principle of distinction which has been here in- 
sisted on, is recognized by its Articles. The sixth 
Article declares, not that the framers merely had 
proved all asserted in these Articles from Scrip- 
ture ; but that " whatsoever is not read therein, 

z An anecdote is recorded of Bp. Fleetwood replying to 
some one who asked his opinion about the book, that " he 
thought the author had pretty sufficiently proved that they 
were of no use at all." 



182 The authority of Scripture. 

nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of 
any man, that it should be believed as an article 
of the faith. " Here an authority is asserted for 
Scripture such as belongs to a law. Again, in Arti- 
cles eighth, nineteenth, and twenty -first, the proper 
authority which belongs to Creeds and Councils, 
as well as to Churches of other times and places, 
is no less plainly marked. In the twentieth and 
thirty-fourth Articles, lastly, the Church's autho- 
rity in the sense of power, and right of judicial de- 
cision, is maintained in terms the most definite and 
guarded ; and the distinct province of Scripture 
once more asserted. " The Church hath power 
to decree Rites or Ceremonies, and authority in 
controversies of faith : and yet it is not lawful for 
the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary 
to God's word written, neither may it so expound 
one place of Scripture, that it be repugnant to 
another. Wherefore, although the Church be a 
witness and a keeper of holy writ, yet, as it 
ought not to decree any thing against the same, 
so besides the same ought it not to enforce any 
thing to be believed for necessity of salvation.' ' 

Never can Scriptural inspiration have its au- 
thority duly recognised, unless this distinction be 



Difference of uninspired authority. 183 

scrupulously and sacredly observed. The Scrip- 
tures are the sole test of our faith, whenever the 
question is, whether our faith be correct or not ; they 
are the sole oracle, which we may lawfully con- 
sult, if ever doubt and difficulty respecting " the 
way and the truth" beset us. To have recourse 
to the self-constituted prophets of the nations, 
as well as to those of Israel inspired of God, was 
not, of old, to make security more secure; but 
rather, to tempt God to deliver the applicant 
over to the delusion of a lying spirit. When we 
too are using man's wisdom, for purposes to which 
God has adapted and appropriated his Scriptures — 
we, in like manner, may seem to ourselves to be 
gaining additional light, when we are perhaps 
only darkening our understandings. The Papist 
invokes the aid of departed saints, in addition to 
that of his Saviour ; and urges in defence of the 
practice, that he does all that the Protestant 
does, and more ; and that he never supposes or 
implies by the practice, that the intercession of 
a saint is so efficacious as that of the one great 
Mediator. What better plea has the Protestant, 
who, while he charges the Romanist with error, 
is himself appealing indifferently to human autho- 



84 The authority of Scripture. 

rity and to the Scriptures — is himself canonizing 
not the men indeed, but their writings — and main- 
taining, all the while, that he never supposes or 
implies that the authority of the two is equal ? 
Surely, in both cases alike, the error and the 
mischief consists, in making appeals of the same 
land to man and to God — in giving Jehovah's 
glory to another. 

This abuse requires to be the more sedulously 
guarded against, because its true character is 
generally disguised from those who practise it. 
Men never avow, even to themselves, that un- 
inspired documents are used by them as if they 
were inspired. The impiety, which, if seen, would 
startle and alarm them, is kept out of sight, by 
their investing the human idol with an intermediate 
and vague character — by their imagining a gra- 
dual and imperceptible waning, as it were, of 
the holy light of inspiration, from the pages of 
prophets and apostles, through the works of 
succeeding teachers of divine truth — a kind of 
spiritual twilight, breaking the abruptness of the 
departing glory, instead of one strongly marked 
line which alone we are authorized and bound to 
draw between writings whose authoritv has been 



Difference of uninspired authority. 185 

attested by miracles, and all, without exception, 
not so attested. How different was the scruple 
of that very age, to which this authority is 
ascribed, as represented in the words of an ancient 
writer. ' ' They who are now called bishops were 
originally called apostles ; but the holy apostles 
being dead, they who were ordained after them 
to govern the Church could not arrive at the 
excellency of the first ; nor had they the testimony 
of miracles, but were in many other respects 
inferior to them. Therefore, they thought it 
not decent to assume to themselves the name 
of apostles ; but dividing the names, they left 
to presbyters the name of the presbytery, and 
they themselves were called bishops 2 ." They 
themselves would not assume even the empty 
titles; and shall we presume to invest them 
with the very authority which had rendered those 
titles too holy, too awful for them? 

The worth, the purity of faith, the exemplary 
conduct, and the eminent services to the Christian 
cause, which distinguished many of these, has 
rendered their writings only more liable to be so 

z Ambrose cited by Amalarius de Offic. &c. lib. ii. c. 13. 
and by Bingham, Eccles. Antiq. b. ii. c. 11. 



186 The authority of Scripture. 

abused. They are the fathers of the Church; 
and we feel that we owe them a filial reverence. 
From their faithful custody we have received, not 
only the unrecorded usages of the apostolic 
Church, but the recorded messages of apostles 
and prophets, and of the Lord himself. What 
wonder, if in our weakness and folly, nay rather 
say, in our holy zeal, we, like them of Lystra a , are 
fain to pay them a homage that is sinful? But 
what, can we suppose, would be the language of 
those very persons, could they now rise from the 
dead, and address their spiritual children? When 
they beheld them ascribing that authority to 
their words which belongs to holy writ alone, 
would they not exclaim, " Sirs, why do ye these 
things ? we also were men of like passions with 
you, and have preached unto you, in these our 
writings, that ye should turn from all such idol 
vanities, to serve the living God." 

And loudest would the fathers of our own 
Church be in lifting up their voice to testify and to 
disclaim the impious homage. They do speak to 
us from their graves. The story of our Church's 
martyrs tells us that they died, not to maintain 

a Acts xiv. 



Difference of uninspired authority. 187 

and perpetuate any authority of their own, but 
to establish the sole supremacy of Scripture — to 
bequeath to us, as an inheritance for ever, the 
Bible in our mother tongue ; the spirit to search 
out its meaning ; and the right to appeal for the 
purity of our faith from the word of man to the 
word of God. 



APPENDIX. 



Note to page 19- 

Whatever may be the exact date of St. Paul's second 
Epistle to Timothy, there can be no doubt that it was 
written not long before his death; because he speaks 
in it of his departure being at hand% without there being 
any circumstances about the declaration to qualify his 
words, as in the case of his expressions to the elders of 
Ephesus. 

The fulfilment of these expressions, and the prophetical 
character of them, has, nevertheless, been maintained 
by some, on the ground that we have no Scriptural 
account of Paul being afterwards actually at Ephesus, 
or in personal intercourse with the Ephesian elders. 
This, however, is not decisive. It may be impossible to 
prove such a negative, as that the words were not fulfilled 
to the letter ; but certainly they do not seem to have 
been fulfilled in spirit. The natural impression of St. 
Luke's narrative is, that both parties were looking for- 
ward to Paul's fate at Jerusalem as the crisis which in- 

* Chap. iv. 5, 7. 



190 Appendix. 

volved their final separation ; and took leave of each 
other accordingly, not as if the apostle were yet for 
many years to continue his course — to be accessible — 
even to return to the very spot where they then were b ; 
but, as if he were about to be removed altogether from 
the scene of his labours. His mention of his own " de- 
parting 11 is plainly made in this spirit. When we read 
in Scripture, therefore, of his subsequent release from 
Jewish persecution, his return to his apostolical duties, 
and his being actually in this very place Miletus; this 
is surely strong ground for questioning the fulfilment, 
and consequently the prophetical character, of his fore- 
bodings. Nay, the words themselves, if we consider 
them attentively, apply, it would rather seem — not to 
the Ephesian elders alone — but to all in those parts 
among whom he had been preaching in his apostolic 
journeys ; " I know that ye all, among whom I have 
gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face 
no more. Wherefore, I take you to record, &c." 

The fact, that the record itself of these words is so left 
as to admit of question at least, whether it represents Paul 
as prophesying, affords, under these circumstances, a pre- 
sumption that it was not designed so to represent him. 
He is said, in the first instance, to have disavowed all 
inspired knowledge of impending evil, beyond the "bonds 
and affliction" which others had been inspired to declare 
in general terms. Was not this disavowal sufficient to 

b Miletus and Ephesus were only 50 miles apart. 



Appendix. 191 

make those addressed, and ourselves, look on the antici- 
pations in which he afterwards indulges, as the sug- 
gestion of his own mind — the inference he naturally 
drew from the circumstances in which he found himself, 
combined with the vague but gloomy hints of the Spirit ? 
Ought we to contend for the inspired character of words 
so uttered, even at the risk of having their fulfilment 
questioned or denied ? 



THE END. 



BAXTER, PRINTER, OXFORD, 



4& 



By the same Author. • 

I. 

The HISTORY of the RISE and EARLY PRO- 
GRESS of CHRISTIANITY, comprising an Inquiry 
into its true Character and Design. 2 vols. 8vo. price ll. Is. 

II. 

The CATECHIST'S MANUAL and Family Lecturer; 
being an Arrangement and Explanation of St. Mark's 
Gospel for purposes of Missionary and Domestic Instruc- 
tion. 8vo. price 10s. 6d. 

III. 

The THREE TEMPLES of the ONE TRUE GOD 

contrasted. 8vo. price 5s. 6d. 



I* 



BUG - I9M 






Deacidified using the Bookkeeper proceS 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: May 2005 

PreservationTechnologie 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATK 
111 Thomson Pi 
Cranberry To 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




014 165 317 9 




